Enter the Prayer Beads
by nihongoneko
Summary: When Akane and Ranma end up in possession of a pair of prayer beads - exactly like the ones around Inuyasha's neck, in case you haven't caught on yet - and they end up on Ranma, what hilarity and chaos will ensue then? RanxInu xover. RanxAka, InuxKag pair
1. Chapter 1 occurrence of the prayer beads

Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha crossover fanfiction (under Ranma 1/2)

"Enter the Prayer Beads"

summary: When Akane and Ranma end up in possession of a pair of prayer beads (exactly like the ones around Inuyasha's neck, in case you haven't caught on yet) and they end up on Ranma, what hilarity and chaos will ensure then? RanxInu crossover. RanxAka, InuxKag pairings.

disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's works. She's too good at what she does.

-

**CHPATER ONE: Occurrence of the Prayer Beads- the Prayer Beads Emerge**

Akane came home from school to find a package for her sitting on the family room table. She picked it up, curious. There was no return address, which was odd, but it looked harmless enough, so she decided to open it. But, as experience had taught us, nothing is ever as it seems.

Akane untied the string around it and unwrapped the plain brown paper. An equally plain, narrow white box was in the paper. It looked exactly like a necklace box that you would get from a jewelry shop. Akane was just about to pull the top of the box off when Ranma startled her by asking

"Hey, Akane, what'cha doin'?"

from right behind her.

"Yaargh!" Akane screamed, and accidentally fling the box into the air. The top flew off and both it and the bottom half clattered to the floor. And, as things in Nerima tend to happen, what had been in the box flew through the air and landed right around Ranma's neck.

That was the first time that Akane got to see the string of what appeared to be prayer beads that would soon change her life. Of course, at the time, she had no idea of the significance of what had just happened.

"Ranma! Don't scare me like that!" she shouted at her fiancé, who was staring down at the necklace that had fallen on him, pulling it away so that he could look at it and fingering it with mild interest.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who screamed and threw this necklace at me."

Ranma chuckled, amused at her irrational fear, his hands moving to the necklace to take it off.

"What is this, anyway? Some sort of present?"

He pulled upwards and gave out a surprised grunt when his hands met some resistance with the beads halfway off of his neck.

Akane huffed, folding her arms angrily and looking up at him before saying

"I didn't throw them at you!"

She watched him for a minute, who appeared to just be holding the necklace (but was actually trying to take it of), before speaking again.

"Now give me my necklace back."

"I'm tryin'." Ranma grunted, again trying to pull the beads off him.

"It won't budge."

"Stop joking." Akane said, annoyed.

"How hard can it be to take off a _necklace_? Give it back."

"_Fine_." Ranma said, getting annoyed with the string of beads and its refusal to move more than a couple of inches.

"Then you try it."

Akane huffed in annoyance before taking hold of the necklace with both hands and began to lift them off of him.

"Honestly. Can't you do _anything_?" she said.

"What. It's not my fault it won't move." Ranma said, slightly annoyed.

Akane had gotten the necklace only halfway off of him (below where Ranma had met resistance) when her father came barging into the room, immediately assuming the scene to be what he wanted it to be.

"Oh happy day! Look, Saotome, Akane is giving Ranma a present! Surely the schools will be joined now!"

Genma Saotome followed right on his heels, holding a fan in his hands with the character for love written on it, which he flourished at his side.

"Aye, Tendo! Indeed it will! Look at them! So much love!"

Immediately, Ranma and Akane turned red and leapt away from each other (Akane releasing the necklace as she did), both forgetting about the innocent looking piece of jewelry as they began to profusely deny that either of them were doing anything even remotely couple-like.

"I wasn't giving Ranma anything!"

"Yeah, Pops. An' besides, why would I accept a gift from a macho chick like her?"

"_What_ did you say?"

"Uh, I, er..." Ranma stuttered as he began to back up, hand up in a visible sign of surrender.

"You jerk!"

"I didn't mean it! I didn't mean it!" he said frantically, but it was too late.

And Ranma was sent crashing through the roof and into the air.

A cry of "Uncute tomboy!" was heard fading into the distance then, and Akane slung her mallet over her shoulder and turned to glare at the two fathers, who both made a hasty retreat to another part of the house.

-

Ranma returned some time later, rolling his shoulder in an attempt to ease its ache from when he crashed back to earth. That mallet sure packed a punch. Why, despite all his martial arts training, was he never able to avoid it? It was like there was a homing device on it or somethin' that made it impossible to dodge.

He had just reached the Tendo's porch when he sensed danger, and sidestepped just in time as a figure appeared from nowhere, narrowly missing him, fists flying and umbrella brandished.

"Ranma, prepare to_ die_!"

It was Ryoga.

"Hey, Ryoga, long time no see! Got lost again, huh pork-boy?"

"Shut up! You're not getting away this time! I've got you for sure!"

And then Ryoga tripped and fell flat on his face. When he didn't immediately get up, Ranma began calling his name.

"Ryoga. Ryoga?"

He poked him with his foot, before bending down to examine the eternally lost boy, only to discover that said boy was knocked out cold.

Ranma sighed, disgusted.

"Great. Now even the floor can beat 'em up." he said as he dragged Ryoga inside.

end chapter.

-

end chapter notations: I have yet to really figure this out. Well, I sort of have an idea or two, but I want readers input. What do you either _think_ that I'm going to make the necklace trigger word be, or what word do you _want_ it to be? I'll take suggestions, obviously, and if I find one that I like better than what I had planned to use, I'll use it instead. Also, tell me how you like the story so far. I'll continue it whether you like it or not, really, but I'd still like to know. Thanks for reading this first chapter! Hopefully, I'll see you next time too. :)


	2. Chapter 2 the working of the prayer bead

Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha crossover fanfiction (under Ranma1/2)

"Enter the Prayer Beads"

summary: When Akane and Ranma end up in possession of a pair of prayer beads (exactly like the ones around Inuyasha's neck, in case you haven't caught on yet) and they end up on Ranma, what hilarity and chaos will ensure then? RanxInu crossover. RanxAka, InuxKag pairings.

disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's works. She's too good at what she does.

-2-

**CHAPTER TWO: The Working of the Prayer Beads**

Ranma was greeted in the doorway by Akane, who was coming down the stairs. Actually, 'greeted' was too strong a word. More like, she ignored him, rushed over to Ryoga, who was still unconscious, and chastised him for beating up the lost boy with

"Ranma, what did you do to him this time!"

"I didn' do nothin' to him!" Ranma said in protest.

"He slipped and fell on the porch on his own!"

"Poor Ryoga." Akane said, ignoring him completely and lifting Ryoga's head up for a better look at the boy's red face (from the contact with the ground, duh).

It was then that Kasumi came in.

"Oh my! Do we have another guest?" she asked, seeming to be oblivious to the fact that Ryoga was unconscious and hanging limp in Akane's arms. Then she turned to Ranma.

"Oh, welcome back, Ranma. You missed dinner, you know."

"Er, yeah..." Ranma trailed off, scratching his cheek with his pointer finger.

"I'm, ah, sorry I didn't make it back in time."

Akane scowled in his direction, obviously thinking the worst of him. But in truth, it hadn't been on purpose. (Besides, who ever knew him to willingly miss a meal anyway?) First off, Ranma had landed somewhere in the park. That alone hadn't been so bad. (At least he hadn't landed much farther than normal.) But almost immediately after that, he had encountered Kodachi, and, after being chased by her for a bit, he was splashed by a hose and was chased by Kuno as well.

After loosing them, he had slipped and hit face first into a pole, which had happened to be right near a fish shop. And since he was right near their garbage, he was soon surrounded by c-c-c- er... feline creatures of all shapes and sizes, and after that, the world had gone black. He had woken up only about five minutes ago in a tree, and probably should be grateful that he had turned back at all.

Ranma shook his head, only hoping that whatever he had done that he couldn't remember wasn't too bad. From what he could guess, he had gone neko again, and sometimes that led to all sorts of problems.

A faint rattling sound reached his ears as his head shook, and he looked down and realized that Akane's necklace from earlier was still on him. Akane must've noticed it too, because she stood up (putting Ryoga back on the floor), went over to him, and reached up for it.

"I can't believe that you still have this on." she said, exasperated, as she extended her arms out to grasp the beads.

Personally, Ranma couldn't believe it either. True, he had been kind of occupied, what with running from the Kunos and all, but he'd of thought that it'd fall off at some point during either the fall or chase. They were definitely loose enough on him (loose enough to land over his head with ease when Akane had tossed them up in the air). It was a miracle that they'd stayed on at all.

As Akane's hands closed around the necklace, Ranma happened to look down at the top of Akane's head and was startled to find himself calming as the scent of her shampoo reached his nose. The moment seemed almost... domestic between them, and he couldn't help a small, happy feeling from entering his chest. It felt so much better than when she was yelling at him. It was only times like this that he could actually believe that there was more than just anger and awkwardness between them.

He was about to sigh contently when his senses detected the presence of someone approaching the Tendo residence. Ranma was just about to tense up when he realized that it was just Shampoo and not a threat. Of course, Shampoo was a kind of threat too- one about to shatter his and Akane's peaceful moment.

Akane had lifted the bead almost all of the way off of him (but still below the level that they had resisted being pulled up by Ranma) when the crash surprised her. The beads dropped back onto Ranma's neck as Akane turned to see where the sound had come from.

Her head turned towards the next room, where one of the walls had just been destroyed by the Amazon, who was now walking towards them with a huge smile on her face. Or, more so, walking towards Ranma with a huge smile on her face.

"Nihao, Ranma." she said in her high feminine voice, launching herself at him and grabbing hold of the martial artist in a death grip, completely ignoring Akane who only inches away from them and was now fuming mad.

Ranma began to sweat nervously, watching Akane's face in terror, and struggling in vain to release Shampoo's hold on him. Shampoo only hugged him tighter and began to purr happily, as if oblivious to the whole thing.

"Wo ai ni, Arien." she said, and rubbed her cheek against his chest. Ranma blushed red and began to struggle more frantically, his eyes still glued to Akane's face.

"Shampoo! Hey, get off! Akane's right there!" he said, panicked, and attempted to shove her away, for which she only gripped him even tighter.

Akane's face seemed to give off steam as she glared at the two. It was impossible to tell who she seemed madder at, though Ranma didn't have to think to hard to guess at the truth. She was probably madder at him than Shampoo. She always was.

"Forget it. Keep them for all I care!" she said angrily, and turned on her heels, storming away.

Ranma watched her retreating back, a bit sad, his hands stilling on Shampoo as he focused on Akane leaving. He and Akane didn't get many moments like that. Ever. And, to tell the truth, he wished that they had more of them. Peace was so scarce in his life. Peace with Akane was even rarer.

He looked down at the purple haired girl who still had him in a fierce grip and showed no sign of moving. Now he wanted to sigh from exhaustion, tired with his chaotic but strangely repetitious life. With Akane no longer around glaring at him, Ranma no longer felt embarrassed with Shampoo clinging to him. It was almost like she wasn't even there. Which was strange, because Shampoo was not a force people could ignore.

"Shampoo, get off." he said, pushing her again, but with steady hands this time. Maybe it was the tone, but she released him from her grip and stared up at his face, confused.

"Airen?"

"Go home, Shampoo."

She frowned up at him.

"No. Shampoo no want to."

Shampoo made a grab to hold onto him again, but Ranma managed to dodge her.

"I have work to do." he said, refusing to turn to meet her eyes. After a short silence, Shampoo humphed and left, stomping the whole way.

Ranma let out a tired sigh and ran a hand through his hair, down to his braid. Suddenly, he felt so old. And that was so unlike him. Deciding that it must be something in the air, or an unusual alignment of the planets, or_ something_, Ranma decided that he should just get something to eat- surely Kasumi had some sort of leftovers- and go to bed early. Maybe in the morning he would feel normal again.

-

Unfortunately, when Ranma woke up, he felt exactly the same as the night before. He lay on his futon, and stared at his hand in the sunlight. Sounds came from out in the hallway, and he tuned them out. It was the usual morning chaos. But this time, without him. The minute Genma had tried to start a fight with him, Ranma had thrown him out the window. It just hadn't seemed worth it today.

The noise level escalated, and drifted into Ranma's ears. His thoughts turned to the ruckus, which seemed too loud to be his pop. At least, too loud for this early in the morning. A few more crashes were heard, followed by an angry voice.

"Get back here, you pervert!"

It was Akane. And from the answering cackle, she was chasing after Happosai. What did the lecher do now?

Ranma frowned, got up, and opened the bedroom door, just as the old man came flying by in the air.

A white flutter caught Ranma's eyes. His hand shot out and snagged Happosai by the collar of his gi. And in Happosai's hands was a bra.

Akane rushed into view, and stopped short as she caught sight of him. She held a bamboo practice sword in her hands, and her breath came in short bursts. Before she could say anything, though, Ranma snatched the bra from his father's mentor and tossed it over to her, which she caught one handed.

"I'm guessing that this is yours?"

Akane nodded, mute. Amused by her silence, Ranma almost smiled, until he remembered that he was still holding onto Happosai. He looked down at the small man, who tried giving him doe eyes. When Ranma just frowned at him, he began to protest.

"Really, Ranma. How could I resist? They were right there in the open!"

"Yeah. And the fact that you probably went into her room to get them is of no importance to me at all." he replied sarcastically.

"Eh heh heh. A man's gotta make a living somehow."

"Stealing girl's underwear is not a job."

"It is to me, sonny boy."

-

Akane watched as Ranma calmly stared down Happosai. His whole demeanor seemed different this morning. More mature, which was really unlike him. Maybe it was the way that he was handling the old pervert for a change.

She started at the sound of Ranma's voice, asking her something.

"What?"

He repeated his question.

"Is breakfast ready yet?"

Akane shook her head.

"I don't know. I was too busy chasing that pervert."

Which brought her back to why she was there in the first place. She stared down at the hand that held her bra, now tightly in her grasp.

"Thanks, by the way. I'm going to put this away."

She caught Ranma's nod out of the corner of her eye as she turned towards her room. He really was acting differently. He hadn't even teased her.

-

Ranma watched Akane go, a small smile playing on his lips, happy for the first time since Shampoo had arrived yesterday. Maybe today would be

His thoughts were cut off by a loud crash. Shampoo came out of nowhere, her voice high and happy.

"Ranma! Airen, go on date with Shampoo, yes?!"

"Wha- Shampoo, not now! I have to-" he stuttered, taken by surprise, arms flung out to ward her off. But as always, she managed to get past his defenses and wrap her arms tightly around him.

As always, the noise brought out Akane, and the minute she saw them, her eye twitched and her aura flared up.

"_You_..."

"Akane, it's now what you think! She just-"

"Arien go on date now, yes?"

Akane's face grew even more stormy. Her words dripped out of her mouth like poison.

"_Oh_, I think it's exactly what I think. _Pervert_!" and with that, she swung her fist and almost sent him flying into the air, straight through the roof. Thankfully, he ducked just in time. But maybe he shouldn't of, because it just made her even more mad.

"Jerk! Pervert! Baka!"

And despite his best intentions, as he dodged her blows, an insult popped out of his mouth before he could stop it.

"Hey, it's not like-like I asked _you _out or nothin'!"

And just that quickly, she snapped.

"I wouldn't go out with you even if you had to _beg _me for it!"

Suddenly, a flash went off in front of Ranma's eyes and the next thing he knew, he was face down on the ground. He could feel Shampoo and Akane stared down at him as he groaned from the pain.

"Idiot. I didn't even touch you that time. I guess Ryoga's not the only one that can fall down and knock himself out." Akane said, her voice half exasperation, half happy, and only slightly disgusted. And with that, she turned on her heel and left to go downstairs for breakfast.

Ranma groaned again, for some reason unable to get his body to move and pick himself up.

"And I guess I'm not the only clumsy one either." he heard her mutter, with satisfaction in her voice. And it made him smile, despite having his face touching the wooden floor. Well, at least one good thing had come out of his embarrassment.

-end chapter.


	3. Chapter 3 working of the prayer beads 2

Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha crossover fanfiction (under Ranma1/2)

"Enter the Prayer Beads"

summary: When Akane and Ranma end up in possession of a pair of prayer beads (exactly like the ones around Inuyasha's neck, in case you haven't caught on yet) and they end up on Ranma, what hilarity and chaos will ensure then? RanxInu crossover. RanxAka, InuxKag pairings.

disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's works. She's too good at what she does.

to my readers: to Hanyou Heritage, I'm surprised that you picked up on that. You're right, it was pretty obvious. But yeah, I thought having something similar to "sit" would make things easier. And yes, Inuyasha and Kagome will make an appearance soon. I only consider a story a crossover if they have actual characters and/or something big from another manga/anime. Any that have, say, only the same idea, I just call "inspiration", etc. to walkmyfish, yeah, I was going to use "pervert" as the command. But if I have her saying it like Kagome does to Inuyaha when she gets mad (saying it rapidly over and over), I figured that the poor girl wouldn't have enough breath to pull it off. And to everyone who guessed on the command, it _is_ "beg". I figured that it'd be funny, and because Inuyasha's entering the picture soon (not this chapter though), so... well, you get the picture. :)

-3-

**CHAPTER THREE: The Working of the Prayer Beads, part 2**

Shampoo had left a few seconds after Akane, when she realized that he couldn't get up off the ground. But a few seconds after that- about a minute or two- Ranma was able to spring up like it never happened. It surprised him, after the struggle he had just a few second before, trying to get up. Shrugging it off as just another part of the weirdness in his life (and, as always, ignoring what could very well be an important hint of impending doom), Ranma descended down the stairs to get breakfast.

He came down to find everyone already at the table. Ranma took his seat next to Akane, who didn't seem so mad at him as a few minutes ago. Maybe it was because he had fallen flat on his face.

Deciding that it didn't matter as long as she didn't hit him, he began to shovel his rice into his mouth before his dad could steal it. Speaking of which, Genma didn't look too happy with him. Considering that he had thrown him out the window (see previous chapter), he couldn't really blame him.

Somehow, even as he ate, Ranma's mind kept drifting back to when he fell. His gut told him that there was something significant about that, but he couldn't think of what or why. He didn't even realize that it was unusual for him to be thinking so early in the morning until a voice broke into his thoughts.

"Ranma?"

He looked over at Akane.

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothin'."

Her look said clearly that she didn't believe him. But she let it go.

They finished breakfast and got to school with minimum trouble (just Kuno. for whatever reason, Shampoo didn't show up all day). And classes were the same as always. But Ranma still couldn't help feeling like he missed something important- that there was something that he should have seen, or noticed that he hadn't. It bothered him all through the day.

Akane even noticed, and she stole glances over at him all during class. He wasn't sure what to make of it, though, so he shrugged it off as her being a worry-wart. However, she wasn't the only one that had been watching for something unusual. At lunch time, Ukyo approached him on the roof with her arms crossed and an angry heat sparking in her eyes…

-

"What's going on between you two?" Ukyo demanded.

"Who two?"

Ranma was confused. It wasn't like Ukyo to get angry at him over nothing. And he was pretty sure that it was nothing.

"You and Akane." she said, exasperated.

"Something's going on that I don't know about, and I want to know what."

"Nothin's goin' on between us." he said, unsure of what she was referring to. He and Akane hadn't done anything unusual. At least, not that he knew of.

The confusion must've been clear on his face, because Ukyo sighed and her stance relaxed.

"Maybe I'm just imagining things." she muttered, more to herself than to him. Silently, Ranma agreed with her.

"I mean, this _is_ you that we're talking about."

Now he didn't know whether to feel relieved or offended. Then Ukyo looked back over at him and frowned, stepping towards him with purposeful strides.

"What's that?" she asked, sounding half curious, half suspicious.

"What?"

Ukyo pointed at his neck.

"That necklace."

Ranma looked down to where she was pointing.

"Oh. It's Akane's."

"_What_?!"

The fury in her voice had him taking a step back.

"It's Akane's necklace. Or, it was. But she gave it to me yesterday."

Okay, so she had shouted that he could keep it when she was mad, but she hadn't asked for it back. And honestly, he had forgotten all about it. It just wasn't that important to him.

"Take it off." Ukyo demanded, a frown marring her features.

"Why?"

Ukyo threw up her hands in anger.

"_Because_! You can't accept a gift from Akane! It wouldn't be fair!"

"It wasn't a gift." he said, dumbfounded and unsure why it was such a big deal with her. It was just a necklace. And why wouldn't it be fair if Akane had given it to him?

"She said that she didn't want it."

-

Ukyo let out a frustrated semi-scream, holding her fists to the sides of her head, and saw Ranma's eyes grow cautious. She tried to take a calming breath and failed.

Why didn't he get it? Kami, he was so clueless! If he accepted something from Akane, did that mean that he liked her better than him?

The necklace _had_ to go!

Because every time she saw it, she'd have to wonder. And if she had time to wonder, she'd begin to doubt. And the doubt would be about how much Ranma loved her compared to Akane. And Ukyo was afraid that she'd come up short.

Even though she and Ranma were childhood friends, she hadn't seen Ranma in awhile. And by the time she had seen him again, Ranma had already met and been with Akane for some time.

Akane had the advantage. She knew more about what Ranma was like now, while Ukyo only knew about how he used to be. Of all the fiancées, though Ukyo hated to admit it, Akane was her biggest threat. And there were times that Ranma honestly seemed to like Akane. Maybe it was just friendship, but she couldn't take the chance that it could grow into more.

Akane couldn't cook- couldn't even boil water- couldn't fight, and wasn't_ that_ cute or pretty. Plus, the girl was really clumsy. But for some reason, Ranma always defended her, always went to her, always helped her and tried to encourage her in his own way. And Akane was always put first, it seemed.

Constantly, Ranma worried about her, of what Akane'd think or how she'd act. He always complained about her, but still, it was Akane that was the most on his mind. And all the girl did in return was hit him. But Ranma still spent most of his time with her either way.

Living together was no excuse. If he didn't like her, he could have moved in with Ukyo instead, or stayed out of the house more. But instead, he was almost always there.

And, for those very reasons, Ukyo reached up for the odd necklace around Ranma's neck, determined to remove it. She couldn't let him keep a gift from Akane, not matter what. Maybe it meant nothing. But somehow, Ukyo doubted it.

-

Ranma felt an odd sense of panic as he watched Ukyo's hands reach for the necklace. He pushed the feeling aside, telling himself that it was ridiculous. He couldn't even remember that he wore it until someone pointed it out. So why didn't he want to let someone take it off?

Her fingers closed around the necklace and Ranma felt another streak of panic, which he also pushed aside. He watched as she pulled it up, and was surprised when she stopped halfway.

Ukyo grunted, and Ranma saw her shoulders and arms jerk up. But her hands remained where they were.

"Ukyo?"

"This (grunt) necklace (ugh!) won't _move_!"

Ranma blinked at her.

"It won't...?" he started, trailing off and hoping that he had misheard, proving that when he had tried yesterday to remove it had been a fluke. But when Ukyo repeated herself, his hope began to drop.

"Move? Yeah. It's like there's a barrier or something."

She let her hands fall to her sides and gave a frustrated sigh, watching it clatter back down. Ranma almost told her to stop fooling around, hoping she was, but he saw the anger in her eyes and decided that maybe she wasn't joking after all.

He turned away slightly and had to stop himself from fingering the necklace. What was _with_ him today? He didn't feel the same. He felt... different.

Thinking about it made Ranma realize that he hadn't even asked Ukyo for any okinomiyaki today. And he _loved_ food.

Frustrated with his thoughts, Ranma grabbed the necklace determinedly and pulled up. When he hit a sudden resistance, he grunted in surprise and his hands slipped, the necklace slipping through his fingers.

"..."

He stared down at the necklace, stunned, and just hoped that he wasn't wearing a piece of cursed jewelry. He'd already had enough experiences with curses to last him several lifetimes. Finally, Ukyo's voice broke the silence.

"Ranma?"

"What, Ukyo?"

His tone seemed to surprise her, and when he didn't turn to look at her, her voice turned cautious, which was rare.

"Um... What's with the necklace? Did Akane really give it to you?"

"..."

"Ranma?" she asked again, cautiously.

"Yeah."

Then he walked off the school roof, leaving her there by herself. The only thing on his mind was that he needed some time alone to think. And, for once, the idea of thinking appealed to Ranma- a lot.

-

She watched his retreating back, and couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding at the turn of events. Akane had given Ranma a necklace that wouldn't come off. And he seemed strangely... attached to it. It wasn't cursed, was it? Kami_, s_he hoped not.

Ukyo shook her head sadly, hoping that she was wrong. The people of Nerima had enough curses to see and deal with as it was- enough to last a lifetime. With Ranma, Shampoo, Ryoga, and Mousse alone, they were up to their elbows in curses. Add in a stray piece of cursed cloth or picture or something, and chaos broke loose in the normally quiet and normal area. A possibly permanent cursed necklace might be too much to handle. Especially if there was some kind of significance in the fact that Akane gave it to Ranma.

-

A huge sigh escaped Akane's lips as she stared at the homework before her, laid out on the table. She sat downstairs instead of at her desk in her room. For some reason, working in her bedroom held no appeal to her today. Maybe, though, it was because Ranma was downstairs as well.

She snuck a glance over at said boy, who was reading a comic, stretched out on his stomach on the floor. She was still worried about him. After lunch, he seemed even odder than he did that morning. And he had remained like that all the way home. But he looked fine now. Normal.

She let a sigh escape her lips. She was getting tired of doubting herself, thinking that there was something wrong, and then thinking that everything was okay. It either was or wasn't. However, the person she was measuring "normal" by seemed to keep bouncing around her measuring stick on a _normal_ day. She couldn't get a clear reading.

Nabiki walked in then, juggling a juice can, a stack of papers, a pencil, and a calculator in her hands.

"Hey, Akane."

"Hm?" Akane turned towards her, pulled from her thoughts.

"What is it, Nabiki?"

Her sister sat herself down at the table with a sigh, spreading her stuff out around her. Akane noticed a few calculations on the papers before Nabiki leafed through a few pages, pulling out three spreadsheets.

"Business has been a little slow, so we have a pool going on about how long it'll take Ryoga to get back into town. It's not extremely interesting, but it's still something. Want to make an estimate?"

Nabiki looked at her, and Akane couldn't help but get upset on Ryoga's behalf. After all, he was a good friend. And it wasn't his fault that he had some location issues.

"Nabiki! That's terrible!"

"Yeah, well it's good for business. We're also betting on where he'll go before getting here. You sure you don't want to make a guess?"

"I bet he'll come from Hokkido or Okinawa and arrive next week." Ranma said from his spot on the floor, now sitting up to see around Akane to Nabiki.

"Ranma!" Akane rounded on him.

"What do you think, 'kane?" he asked, looking towards her as he flipped a yen coin to Nabiki, who caught it one-handed and began punching calculator buttons and writing down something on one of the spreadsheets.

"I'm not going to _bet_ on that, you _baka_!"

Suddenly, there was a brief flash and then Ranma was face first on the ground. He groaned. Nabiki blinked, her only sign of shock.

"Honestly, Ranma. How clumsy can you get?" Akane huffed, exasperated, as she looked down at him. He gave a muffled reply.

The doorbell rang.

"Oh, I'll get it." she said, standing up and rushed off to answer the door.

-

Nabiki looked down at Ranma, who didn't seem to be getting up any time soon.

"How did you manage to trip sitting down?"

But before Ranma could reply, Akane came back into the room, Cologne trailing behind her.

"Thank you, Akane. I really do need that bowl back. It's Shampoo's favorite."

"Then why did you lend it to us?"

"Well, technically, we lent it to _Ranma_, but-" Cologne stopped midsentence as she spotted Ranma, who was just getting up from the floor.

"What are you _doing_, son-in-law?"

"Tripped." Ranma mumbled back, before reaching down to retrieve his comic and walk into the other room. His necklace clattered as he walked past her.

"Hmm." Cologne's eyes narrowed. Nabiki watched her, interested. Maybe the dry spell of Nerima was about to be over and something exciting was going to happen after all.

Akane returned from the kitchen, a small ornate ceramic bowl held in her hands.

"Here you go."

"Ah, thank you."

"No problem."

Cologne left, and Akane sat down to finish her homework. Nabiki tapped her papers together into a neat pile before laying them back down on the table, her brain running through what she'd seen and sliding things around until she came up with some sort of picture.

Yes. She was almost sure that Cologne had been staring at Ranma's necklace. Hadn't Akane gotten that and it had just ended up on Ranma? But he still had it.

_Interesting._.. It looked like she'd have to do some research.

-Cat Cafe-

"Ah... I thought so." Cologne muttered, her figure bent over an ancient Amazon text.

"It's not Chinese in origin, but there is a mention..."

"Great-grandmother! I home!"

"Ah, Shampoo."

She turned her head to look at her great-granddaughter, her finger holding her place.

"Come in. I think we might have a problem on our hands."

"What?"

"Look here."

Shampoo leaned over and read the page that the woman had opened. A frown marred her brow as she continued reading, and slowly, her face showed a mixture of interest and curiosity.

"What necklace have do with? What problem?"

Cologne looked into Shampoo's eyes as she tapped the text with an index finger.

"I'm afraid that this could be a major problem for us. Son-in-law was wearing a necklace just like this one when I last saw him. There's only a brief mention of it here, but if someone has triggered it, I believe that it can force submission of the wearer by whoever knows how to activate it. And my best guess is that one of his other fiancées gave it to him, since you obviously didn't. Which meant that he'd be submissive to one of them, do what they say."

A small gasp escaped the girl's lips.

"This not good, great-grandmother."

Cologne looked at the page again, worried about how their plans for Ranma would work out if she was right. They might never be able to get him back to China to marry Shampoo if it was true.

"I know."

-end chapter.

-end chapter notation: the next chapter is the last of the "The Working of the Prayer Beads" chapters.


	4. Chapter 4 working of the prayer beads 3

Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha crossover fanfiction (under Ranma1/2)

"Enter the Prayer Beads"

summary: When Akane and Ranma end up in possession of a pair of prayer beads (exactly like the ones around Inuyasha's neck, in case you haven't caught on yet) and they end up on Ranma, what hilarity and chaos will ensure then? RanxInu crossover. RanxAka, InuxKag pairings.

disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's works. She's too good at what she does.

before you read: I've separated the story into sections by using dashes with letters or numbers or words (to make understanding the story easier for my precious readers. personally, I hate it when I can't figure out exactly who is saying what or when I don't figure out that the character perspective has changed until halfway through). the numbers stand for a chapter change, the letters stand for perspective change (character POV change) (ex. A for Akane, R for Ranma, Ry for Ryoga, M for Mousse), and the words stand for scene or a drastic time change (ex. from one day to the next, from morning to afternoon. specific time or time jumps will be numbers too)

to my readers: I apoligize SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for getting this out so late.

-4-

**CHAPTER FOUR: The Working of the Prayer Beads, part 3**

Ranma was up in his room, his hand unconsciously fingering the string of beads around his neck. It was weird. He didn't remember tripping downstairs. So how had his balance tipped and he landed on his face?

His mind replaying the memory, Ranma realized that a flash had gone off in his eyes before the fall. And he thought back further and realized that it had happened when he had fallen that morning too.

It was odd, because he never tripped like that. He wasn't naturally clumsy. He wouldn't be a good martial artist if he was. But where had the flash come from? Or was he just imagining things?

Deciding that it was best not to wear out his brain with an abnormal amount of thought, he got up and stretched. Maybe a workout in the dojo would help clear his head instead. Besides, it was a teacher's day- a day off from school. He had nothing important to do.

-1.5 hrs later-

He returned from his bath to find Cologne, Shampoo, and Mousse downstairs, along with Ukyo, Mr. Tendo, his pop, Nabiki, Kasumi, and Akane.

"Hey, what's goin' on?" he asked, hoping that no one was going to get into an argument about anything, like about him marrying someone or somethin'.

"Oh, hello Ranma. We've been waiting for you." Kasumi said, her regular welcoming smile aimed towards him.

"Okay. Why?"

"Ah! Arien, great-grandmother have bad news." Shampoo said, boucing over to him in one leap, her hands clasped in front of her.

"It's about the necklace, Son-in-law." Cologne explained, and Ranma had to stop the urge of grasping said necklace with his hand in an attempt to hide it as she stared at it.

"I happened to find a reference on it after I came over yesterday, since I found it odd that you were wearing jewelry in your current form. I see that you're still wearing it now."

Ranma almost grimaced, thinking about how others saw him- a guy wearing a necklace. That was girl's stuff. Not to say he hadn't done _odder_ girly things, but still...

"Is there a reason that you have the necklace, son?" Mr. Tendo asked. Ranma blinked at his question, surprised that the man hadn't noticed that he had been wearing to for over 24 hours already. Or remember that he had seen Akane "give" it to him earlier on. And the guy had made a big scene about it and all, too...

"It was mine, dad." Akane said. "I-"

"Did you hear that, Saotome? Oh happy day! Our schools will be joined!" Tendo interrupted, shouting to Genma happily. The two men clasped hands joyously and did a dance together, while Ranma had an odd sense of deja vu.

"Indeed, Tendo! Akane gave Ranma a gift! I admit, it is a bit girly, but a gift is a gift all the same!"

They swung around once, before Akane intervened- protesting loudly.

"Hey! I didn't give it to him! It wasn't a gift!"

The two fathers stopped dancing immediately, hands still clasped together.

"Then why does he have it?" Mr. Tendo asked questioningly.

"Ranma! You didn't steal it from Akane, did you?" Genma added, looking at him with a suspicious look that Ranma didn't think he pulled off too well. Nevertheless, it irritated him.

"I ain't you, Pop! I didn't steal nothin'!"

The two men stopped their posing.

"Well, then, how did you get it, Ranma?" his pop asked, adjusting his glasses in another attempt to look like something he wasn't- smart and observative. However, it did make Ranma think back to how he had exactly obtained the piece of jewelry.

"It sort of... fell on me." he said, a shrug in his voice, unsure how else to describe it. There were a few doubtful looks, but not so much. After all, this was Nerima, where chaos reigned free. And it _was _him they were talking about- the chaos conductor.

"Okay. Now that that's settled." Cologne said, tapping her staff on the floor for attention. "I think you'll all be very interested to learn about what I found."

There was silence as everyone stared at her.

Cologne sighed.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Oh, yes please, elder Cologne." Kasumi said, realizing that the old woman expected a verbal confirmation. "We would like to know about it."

Cologne nodded her head, the lowered it, thinking about how best to speak before finally answering.

"Well, if I'm right, the necklace is a spell of some kind, not a curse, which is a relief of sorts. Although I'm sure that anyone wearing it will consider it one." she glanced at Ranma as she said this. He repressed the urge to shift in his place.

"The spell is triggered by a command- a single word. And it forces the wearer to subjugate to the one who speaks the command. Sort of like the mushrooms that Shampoo used on you once, Son-in-law." she cackled at her own memory of it, which Ranma didn't find funny at all. He was careful to avoid looking at Akane, knowing that she was remembering that time too. Both of them were probably blushing. He knew he was.

"When I ran into young Ukyo in the marketplace, she mentioned seeing it and told me that she couldn't remove it."

Ukyo nodded her confirmation at this

"The necklace cannot be taken off of you. My only source of such a necklace was only a mention of it. It is not Chinese in origin, and does not fall under my, nor Shampoo, nor Mousse's specialties or abilities." she shook her head.

"In all my years, I have never heard of nor seen such a necklace before. It must be either extremely rare, secret, or so old that no one thought to write it down. If it is old, it must have been in a remote region for no information to ever appear on it. The only mention I got about it was a written document from a person who saw this strange phenomena on a travel to Japan at least a thousand of years ago. He described it in his journal, which I only happen to even have because it was the journal of a spiritualist who had explored the world for supernatural occurrences. I can show it to you later if you'd like."

She tapped her cane on the floor once, staring that the floor in thought.

"To break the spell, which I assume you would want gone, well, unless we can find more information, we cannot do anything concrete. We can try a few methods to remove it, but we do not even know the most basic thing about it- the command that the necklace responds to."

"So wait." Nabiki said, bringing Cologne's attention to her, for which Ranma was glad. For some reason, what Cologne was suggesting didn't sit well with him. But denying that he would want the spell removed would be out of character for him to say, and everyone would wonder why.

"Are you saying that this necklace can _control_ Ranma?"

"It seems likely." Cologne said, and everyone could practically see the wheels going inside of Nabiki's head at the news. Even Cologne seemed to be a bit uncomfortable as they thought about what Nabiki was possibly thinking.

Ranma shuddered and turned his thoughts away before they went down that dark path. According to Cologne, they needed a specific word to activate it. As long as Nabiki didn't know it, he should be fine. Unless...

"Hey, old bag. _You_ don't happen to know the command, do you?"

Cologne chuckled, her voice amused.

"If I did, do you think that I'd be here telling you this? No, I have no idea what the trigger word is, Son-in-law. Be thankful for that."

Then her face once again grew serious.

"Now, let's get back to the matter at hand."

-R-

He sat up on the Tendo's roof, hands behind his back and staring off into the sky. It had been bound to happen again. Actually, if he thought back to the last spell or curse put on him (either accidentally or on purpose), he was long overdue. The only problem was... no one knew how to activate it. Well, really, that was a good thing. The last thing he wanted was to be someone's slave. But that also meant that Cologne didn't know how to get rid of it. And that wasn't good... right?

-next day-

Surprisingly, the next school day had been, for the most part, uneventful. Ranma and Akane hadn't really spoken since yesterday, though, and Ukyo kept stealing glances at Ranma. And even more surprising, Ranma found himself more bothered with the former rather than the latter.

They had walked over half of the way home before they actually spoke.

At a loss of what else to say, and definitely not wanting to mention the necklace, Ranma said the first thing that popped into his mind in an effort to get her talking.

"So... You're not going to take that bet about Ryoga with Nabiki?"

"Hah! I wouldn't if she decided to beg-"

Ranma felt his balance tip as something seemed to pull him down, and a flash go off before his eyes, very faintly. He fell off the fence with a crash, and face first right into the pavement.

"-me! It's just so... so... mean... Hey, Ranma?" she turned to see why he wasn't answering, only to see him face first on the ground.

"Ranma! Are you okay?" Akane ran over to his side, concerned.

"I'm fine." he mumbled around the concrete. What was that? Was that Cologne had been talking about? But it couldn't be. The necklace was suppose to _control_ the wearer, right? Not make him eat dirt (or gravel, as the case would be).

He tried to move and his limbs refused to work. He struggled for a bit until, suddenly, he sprung up like nothing was wrong. Huh. That was weird.

"Are you okay?" Akane asked again.

"Yeah. I'm fine." he sung his arms around experimentally.

But Ranma felt something nigging at the back of his mind, trying to him something important. If only he knew what it was.

-A-

Akane put her head to her knees in thought, her eyes drifting closed. The whole two day's events played over in her head. Especially what Cologne had said. A trigger word for the necklace? Now that she thought about it, Ranma _had_ seemed unusually clumsy lately. He had even fallen while sitting down. Remembering it made Akane smile. She could bet that _that_ had never happened to him before.

But Ranma falling like that couldn't have been coincidence. It meant that the necklace had been active and she had said the trigger word, didn't it? The thought made her smile fade. Because, in all seriousness, he would of never fallen like that normally. So she must've activated the necklace's effect. But what had she said? And... if she was right, then the necklace didn't work like Cologne said it did, did it? Because she hadn't commanded him to fall.

Akane raked her brain for the exact words, but couldn't remember them. She recalled talking to Nabiki about Ryoga... and Ranma making a bet... and calling Ranma a baka...

'Baka'? Could that of been it? But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it wasn't the word. Ranma had fallen other times, when she hadn't been mad at him.

She went back to thinking, trying to find a common word in all of her dialogues with her forced fiancé. She had always been talking to him about... about a bet.

Suddenly, her head shot up. 'Bet'. That was it- it had to be. The trigger word was 'bet'!

Determined, Akane got up, prepared to find Ranma and try out her theory.

-

She found him downstairs, eating a bag of potato chips.

"Hey... Ranma?"

He turned around to face her, a chip hanging from his mouth.

"Hm? Yeah, Akane?"

"Um... About that trigger word for the necklace?"

Ranma stood up, having eaten the chip, so that he didn't have to look up at her and strain his neck.

"Yeah, what about it? You know something' about it?"

"Maybe... I..." she sighed, before looking up at him, determined, deciding that she'd rather try it and be wrong then tell him first and be embarrassed for being wrong.

"Bet."

Nothing happened. Akane tried again.

"Bet."

-R-

Ranma knew that he was looking at her weird. But really, you couldn't blame him. First Akane came in, talking about the trigger word for the necklace, and now she was saying something about a bet?

"Akane, are you feeling okay?" he asked.

"I'm feeling fine. _Bet_."

-A-

She frowned. It wasn't working.

"What, are you trying to tell me you're gonna take the bet about Ryoga after all, or somethin'?"

She let out an angry huff and turned away.

"Hah! I wouldn't do that if you decided to beg-"

(crash!)

"-me to do it! I can't believe that you'd think I'd do that to poor Ryoga! Ranma, I- Ranma?"

She turned to find Ranma face first on the ground.

"Ranma! What happened?"

His answer was muffled by the floor. But she would _bet_ that their thoughts were following the same wavelength. One of the words that she had said had been the trigger word for his necklace- had to have been. And it wasn't 'bet'.

Also, the necklace definitely didn't do what Cologne thought it did. And, from the look on Ranma's face, he had realized it too.

Both of them let out silent sighs of relief and worry. In many ways, this could be worse. Because now, that meant that Cologne's source was wrong, and that they had no reference to the necklace at all.

-S-

Shampoo had been about to come into the room and hug Ranma, asking him for a date that she was sure would be wonderful, when the Kitchen-Destroyer had come in first. Shampoo had been about to go in anyway- what did she care what Kitchen-Destroyer thought about her?, when what the girl was saying caught her attention.

"Um... About that trigger word for the necklace?" Kitchen-Destroyer was saying.

Aha! So pervert-girl knew the word! How sneaky!

"Akane, are you feeling okay?" her Arien asked. She sighed to herself, watching him. Oh, he was so handsome! And soon he would be hers.

"I'm feeling fine. _Bet_."

It figures. They were always fighting. If he would just marry Shampoo like he was supposed to, she would make sure that they _never_ argued.

Shampoo was so wrapped up in her own fantasies about marrying Ranma that she missed the rest of the conversation, until a loud crash brought her back to reality.

"Ranma! What happened?" Kitchen-Destroyer was saying.

Shampoo peeked around the corner a bit and saw Ranma face first on the ground. The necklace worked! It figured, though, that Pervert-girl would use it to hurt her Arien.

Shampoo struggled to remember the rest of the conversation, having been daydreaming for most of it. She needed to know the command. What had the word been that Pervert-girl had used?

She snapped her fingers.

Ah! It had been 'bet'!

Smiling to herself, Shampoo snuck silently away. She'd wait until Ranma was all alone before activating the necklace. And then they'd finally be married!

"Now Arien be under Shampoo control!"

-

She got her chance the next day, when the Tendo father had him gone out for fish.

"Arien! So _so_ good to see you!"

She leapt gracefully in front of him, smiling her best smile for him, as always.

"Too too much coincidence! Shampoo _just_ want to see you!"

She saw him take a hesitant step back and laughed.

"Silly Ranma. Shampoo not hug you- yet. Have much more important thing to do first. But know you like hug too too much, so give you later."

Ranma turned red. Too too cute!

Shampoo smiled, ready to put her plan into action.

"Bet."

-R-

Ranma stared at the Amazon, confused. First, it was Akane, now Shampoo? But then it came back to him what Akane had been trying to do, and he felt a shiver of dread go down his spine. Shampoo was trying to figure out the trigger word for the necklace!

Having come to the right conclusion, Ranma braced himself for her to speak, hoping that she hadn't guessed the word for the trigger.

Nothing.

He opened his eyes and looked at her after a moment of silence had passed. Wasn't she going to start trying? It was then that he noticed her staring at him, confused. And it hit him. She thought that 'bet' was the trigger word! Shampoo must've overheard him and Akane earlier. But then that meant... that Shampoo knew could figure out the word from their conversation.

Ranma turned to run.

-S-

"Ah!"

She had been wondering whether the command had worked and how she could tell when noticed her beloved Arien do an about-face and dash off. She froze for a second before racing after him.

"Arien, come back! Come listen to Shampoo command!"

He didn't do it. Darn it, that word hadn't been the one.

At this rate, she'd never make her husband marry her.

-R-

He ran as fast as his legs would carry him, over buildings and through parks, and even on fences, but she kept up with him every step of the way. He could not let Shampoo catch him and figure out the trigger word, no matter what it actually did to him. Having Akane figure it out was bad enough. He didn't need another one trying.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he actually didn't see where he was going, and tripped, falling onto the ground. Immediately, he jumped back up, but that split second had allowed Shampoo to catch up to him, and she was now standing right in front of him.

"Urm... Hi, Shampoo."

"Why Arien run away? Shampoo just want say trigger word so we get married. Is want marry Shampoo, yes?"

The she glared at him, as if suspicious.

"Unless want Pervert-girl say command and fall face again."

Ranma felt the old Saotome foot-in-mouth false-pride-and-boasting-to-cover-up-his-true-feelings-for-a-certain-girl survival instinct kick in. Before he knew it, he opened his mouth and retorted

"Hey, I do not like that macho chick! Besides, even with help, Akane could never in a million years beat me."

-A-

Her ears caught Ranma's last words as she walked rounded the corner. They sent an immediate reaction to her body. Her fists clenched and her back became tense, her teeth clenched in her mouth. Akane felt her aura flare up red hot, a tower of anger. How could he be so mean to her? He would _pay_ for that comment. That ungrateful _jerk_. Seeing red, she stepped out into plain view.

-R-

"_You_..."

_Uh oh. _Ranma slowly turned towards the voice and, sure enough, Akane was standing right there.

"Beg!"

"OW!" Ranma was pulled into the ground by the necklace.

"Beg beg beg beg beg!"

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" his body was pushed deeper and deeper with each command.

"Begbegbegbegbegbegbegbegbeg!"

And then she turned on her heel, leaving Ranma in the now crater shaped just like his fallen body.

-end chapter.

end chapter notations: If you've noticed, when Shampoo thinks, her thoughts are written with proper grammer and all, but outloud, she talks like she always does. I figured that in her head, Shampoo is thinking in her native language, so her grammer is correct. Also, if you've noticed, Akane said the trigger word, but before she didn't know it. While I don't have the best explination for that, I will explain it in the next _next _chapter (in other words, in the chapter after the next one).


	5. Chapter 5 the encounter

Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha crossover fanfiction (under Ranma1/2)

"Enter the Prayer Beads"

summary: When Akane and Ranma end up in possession of a pair of prayer beads (exactly like the ones around Inuyasha's neck, in case you haven't caught on yet) and they end up on Ranma, what hilarity and chaos will ensure then? RanxInu crossover. RanxAka, InuxKag pairings.

disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's works. She's too good at what she does.

before you read: I've separated the story into sections by using dashes with letters or numbers or words (to make understanding the story easier for my precious readers. personally, I hate it when I can't figure out exactly who is saying what or when I don't figure out that the character perspective has changed until halfway through). the numbers stand for a chapter change, the letters stand for perspective change (character POV change) (ex. A for Akane, R for Ranma, Ry for Ryoga, M for Mousse), and the words stand for scene or a drastic time change (ex. from one day to the next, from morning to afternoon. specific time or time jumps will be numbers too, if I end up using them)

to my readers: Thank you for being so patient, waiting for me to update. I feel really bad about taking so long, especially since this was one of the few chapters that I had completely typed and planned out from the beginning of the story. It took me awhile to alter it just enough to fit in with the last chapter, in a way that wouldn't have me change everything and waste all the hard work and (what I think is) one om my best chapters so far.

warning: some intense parts up ahead (not like that, you perverts). In other words, some intense _thinking_ on Ranma's part.

-5-

**CHAPTER FIVE: The Encounter with the Silver-Haired Dog Demon**

"What am I, some kinda DOG?" Ranma grumbled, hands and arms working shakily to lift himself up from the faceplant on the ground that Akane had just inflicted on him before walking away. "Stupid thing's like a leash or somethin', jerking me around like that. Since she's figured the thing out, all she's done is punished me with it."

He paused at what he had just said, only to realize that it was completely true. Akane had used the trigger word before. And she knew what it was now. The fear of Shampoo finding out was nothing compared to the fear he felt coursing through him now.

_Akane knew the trigger_ _word. _

Ranma saw his life flash before his eyes. All the times he had teased her and all he had done to make her angry.

_Oh kami, she'll kill me._

"Speak for yourself." a gruff voice said, coming from his side and snapping him out of his thoughts. Ranma turned his head, still in his push-up like position, to see a boy- no, a man- with silver hair that trailed down to past his waist and white ears atop his head. He was sitting on the concrete wall nearby, staring back at Ranma, arms folded inside of a red old fashioned... hatori? Ranma had never really paid that much attention in school to know what it was, only that it wasn't a kimono or a yukata (which only girls wore anyway, and him sometimes when he changed into one, though normally he had to be forced into it).

"I didn't think anyone else had them too." the silver haired stranger said, eyes flickering to Ranma's necklace and back, as if to make sure that Ranma knew what he was referring to, and Ranma realized that his gruff voice wasn't just rough, but sounded as if the guy wasn't 100 percent human. Having run into his fair share of half-human enemies (Herb, Mint, Lime, Ryoga (in a way), and Pantyhose Taro to name a few), Ranma could tell the difference. His head spun with the possibilities of what the man could be, even as it made him more cautious.

Fangs poked out of the guy's mouth- sharp canines that made you automatically KNOW that this guy was no plant eater- and even sharper golden eyes started down at him. Eyes that were as otherworldly as the rest of him- eyes that missed nothing. He had an odd skin color, too- a somewhat golden hue, as if he had spent most of his life out in the sun, covered all of his skin that Ranma could see, with no visible tan line. But there were no wrinkles to accompany it, which led Ranma to his original assumption that the stranger was younger than the knowledge in his eyes led him to seem. Or that the color was natural.

"Who are you?" Ranma asked cautiously, as he brought himself first to a crouch then to his feet, making sure that he was ready if this guy attacked, though there was no reason for the silver haired stranger to that he knew of. Though the way that his father sold him for the nearest bowl of rice, he wouldn't be surprised if the guy held some sort of grudge against him for something like that. Except that by the way that the guy held himself, Ranma doubted that the man-boy would of bothered with such a petty thing like that. He looked like one of those people that normal people always avoided. Dangerous. Powerful.

Thinking about it made Ranma's blood heat up with the possibility of a strong opponent, but Akane's voice in his head, the only real voice of reason in his life (and that wasn't always a good thing), told him not to make the first move. An opponent like this wouldn't come along very often, and somehow he knew that if he fought against him, he wouldn't come away from it uninjured. Not by a long shot. Which hadn't happened in quite some time. No one posed a real challenge to him anymore. Not since Saffron.

In many things, Ranma was either oblivious to or knew nothing about, for lack of caring or of knowledge. But fighting wasn't one of them. He sized up his opponents before facing off with them. The last thing he wanted to ever do was misjudge someone. Now that would be dangerous. And, for this guy, Ranma had a feeling that the mistake could be deadly.

Immediately, he upped his guard, as the thought came in his head that it was a strong possibility that someone had done that to the guy before. And that they would- or could- never make that same mistake again. It was something in the eyes. It was then that Ranma realized then that the guy he was facing had been- or was- a killer.

"Inuyasha." the stranger said, answering a question that Ranma had been so wrapped up in staying on guard that he had forgotten to ask. Now that was smart. He saw the guy's- Inuyasha's- mouth curve up in a semblance of a smile, and knew that he knew what he had been thinking. Then the name registered in his brain.

Ranma blinked. "Dog demon" was the guys' name? Suddenly, though, it made sense. His eyes strayed to the ears at the thought, which seemed to twitch in response. The small smirk faded, but Ranma caught a glint of fang. He could feel the golden eyes bore into him, and he had to wonder if hidden in the robe's sleeves were hands with claws. At last, his eyes returned to the guys' face.

"Ranma." he answered to the unasked question, somehow knowing that the guy wouldn't of ask for his name even if he wanted to know. Pride radiated off of the stranger in the same way that Ranma knew it radiated off himself most, if not all, of the time, as well as a sense of recklessness that both of them kept in check for the time being. They seemed more alike in Ranma's eyes than they had at a first glance. And it unnerved him a bit. Almost. His hand twitched slightly- a movement that although very small, caught the dog demon's eyes, which flickered to look at it breifly before returning to watching his face. Nothing seemed to pass his sight.

"Inuyasha!" a sudden call came from a short distance away. Ranma turned towards the sound of the girls' voice, and though he didn't see it, he felt the dog-demons' head turn in the same direction. A girl rounded the corner then, her head turning in search of someone. She had long black hair and a green sailor uniform. Who she was looking for didn't take a lot of brains to figure out, though. As she spotted the guy in the odd red clothes almost behind Ranma, she smiled.

The smile lit up her face, and Ranma saw that she was a very pretty girl, about his age based on the school clothes she was wearing. Despite him being almost completely in front of her apparent friend, the dog demon, she began to run towards the stranger, her face showing that she was both glad to see the silver-haired male, relieved to find him, and that she was apparently close to him- and cared about him in a way that Ranma couldn't comprehend.

Not an ounce of fear was visible in any of her body language, nor her voice as she neared- neither which Ranma couldn't believe was possible. He wasn't staring at Inuyasha, but he was still on guard. This girl had her guard completely down and seemed unfazed by the imposing figure. Even if she knew him, she should still take caution. The guy called "Inuyasha" was dangerous. More so than possibly any other Ranma knew, or might ever know. But the girl seemed completely oblivious to the fact. He doubted anyone that knew could ignore it.

The guy known as Inuyasha lept from the concrete wall with an ease that surprised the martial artist. And that was saying something. He moved as if he had lept from much higher distances most of his life, as if his body was use to such inhuman feats as Ranma was. But besides that, the grace looked inbred, as if he was born with it instead of it being a practiced move. Maybe the guy really WAS a demon.

Although it had already seemed likely before, the action more than even the man's- the boy's- appearance solidified the very real possibility for Ranma. Sure, he had faced a demon or two before in the past, but_ this_ guy seemed different. He didn't appear to be a modern demon. He seemed more like the kind that the history books (that Ranma had never really bothered to study in school) talked about when they had discussed legends in class (which he almost never botheres to pay attention to, although he had heard Akane talk to him about it often enough when she complained that he didn't do any work). A demon that could destroy whole villages, instead of maybe just causing some mischief.

The guy stopped just short of the girl, and his new position made Ranma think that he was almost hiding her from his sight, a protective gesture. Or a possessive one. Apparently, she was his close companion and he cared about her too. It surprised Ranma even more than the girl's ease around the demon. The guy called Inuyasha didn't act like someone who had many companions, or close friends. He acted too distant and suspicious and alert of his surroundings- just like a wild animal.

"C'mon, Kagome, it's time to go." he said to her in his gruff voice, ignoring Ranma completely, who'd feel angry about it if he wasn't so busy being fascinated with what was happening in front of him.

Inuyasha made no move to usher her -Kagome- forward with his hand. In fact, he didn't even touch her. But she seemed to all the same be pushed to walking back the way she came. Herded. And willing allowing herself to be, too. Akane wouldn't of never let him get away with that, Ranma thought in the back of his brain.

"Okay. Hey, why did you take off, anyway? I told you not to go disappearing like that on me. Especially out in the open like that." her voice trailed off as they turned the corner.

"Yeah yeah, I know" came the guys' reply as their voices and footsteps faded into the distance, and Ranma could almost swear that his voice took on a different tone.

Ranma stayed there for a moment, a bit stunned. Finally, his brain went back to their conversation and realized something. Inuyasha had recognized his necklace. And he spoke as if he knew about it too.

He shook his head, trying to clear his fogged brain which had clouded with thousands of thoughts since he'd see the silver-haired man. Who was that guy? And what did he seem to know about Ranma's necklace? Somehow, Ranma had the idea that the guy knew more about it than Cologne had. And that was weird. He had spoken as if he had personal experience. As if...

Ranma's thoughts turned over in his head as he brought up that first image of the demon dog into his head again. And immediately, they paused at when he had first gotten a good look at Inuyasha. Ranma felt his body become absolutely still and he forgot to breathe for a second. The guy had had the same type of necklace around HIS neck!

Ranma's hand unconsciously went to the beads that hung around his neck. If that guy had one, then he must have someone that could do the same thing to him that Akane could do to Ranma. He tried imagining that dangerous looking guy going face first into the ground and couldn't. Ranma had to consciously take his hand away from the jewelry piece before he gripped it too tight.

Maybe he was just thinking about things too much. Besides, who could it be? It'd have to be someone who was comfortable enough around "Inuyasha" to do such a thing to the guy and be sure that they'd receive no harm from it. Otherwise, they'd be dead. Then he remembered the girl. What had Inuyasha called her? Kagome. Like the game?

His mind went back to how the male had shielded her from Ranma's view and herded her away without even touching her, and without a protest. Could that innocent looking girl really have that kind of power over a guy like that? But then his mind replayed that last bit again, where Inuyasha came between Ranma's view of Kagome and moved her away without a touch. She seemed to be under his protection. And more so, she seemed to be important to the guy. They had seemed really close.

For one of the few times in his life, Ranma thought about how others must see him and Akane. Did anyone view _them_ like that? Had he ever made a protective move like that towards her? Her, his fiancée?

He shook his head. Naw. None that crossed his mind. (obviously, _he_ can't remember any, although all you readers know _that's_ not true)

With a large breath in and out of his lungs, Ranma allowed his body to relax. What was he doing, thinking so much? He'd, as Akane always joked, hurt his brain doing that. A happy and goofy smile stretching his lips, and an upbeat tune escaped his mouth. Ranma began to stroll off towards home- the Tendo residence- hands folded in the back of his head, deciding that he shouldn't get so worked up over two people who he'd probably never see again. Sure, the guy had been dangerous, but what would the odds be of ever going up against him? Or talking to him again? He could deal with the necklace on his own.

Of course, he had no way of knowing that he'd be running into them again in the near future.

-I-

Inuyasha walked beside Kagome, but his mind was still back at his earlier encounter, instead of concentrating on getting back to the Higurashi's- and the well.

That kid had been younger than him- definitely younger- yet he seemed to be incredibly strong. He had sensed a lot of power from the kid, even though the boy had been crouched on the ground. And the strangest thing was, he had smelled _human_. One hundred percent (a phrase that he learned from Kagome) human. What was up with that? He didn't get that sense of power from Sango or Miroku, Kagome or Kikyo or Kaede. And there was something else too, about him. The kid's attentive eyes, his stance, his aura. It was different, but there all the same.

No other encounter with a human in the "modern" (as Kagome would say) era had ever been quite like that. And to add to it, the boy had the same cursed necklace as him. After awhile with a curse, it becomes easy to recognize (even if you've only ever been the one that you knew that had it), and it had helped that the necklace looked exactly like his own. Plus, the boy was in a deep hole shaped exactly like him. How could he _not_ have the same curse? But how? As far as he knew, Kaede was the only one who knew how to do it.

"Inuyasha?"

"Eh?"

He turned his head to find that Kagome was looking at him.

"You're far away right now."

He snorted, both because he needed to get his mind off his thoughts with some lighter conversation- which didn't matter because he'd probably never see the kid again- and because it was a reflex.

"Nah. I was just thinking about that kid."

"The guy you were with?" Kagome turned her head back to stare straight ahead. "What about him?"

"Well, I wouldn't say I was with him, but... I think he had the same necklace as me."

Kagome came to an abrupt halt, and he had to stop so he didn't end up walking past her or leave her behind.

"_What_?!" she screeched, turning to him.

His ears twitched in an effort to dull the ringing of the high pitched scream in his ears, and he felt himself wince slightly.

"Didn't you notice the oddly shaped hole in the ground?" he raised his eyebrow in question, surprised that she hadn't.

"No. I didn't." her gaze turned contemplative, and she started walking again. Inuyasha fell into step with her again. "I never thought that something like that would end up here. You don't think... that it was the _same _necklace, do you?"

Inuyasha let out another snort.

"If it was, at least that means that you eventually take mine off."

He had walked three steps before he realized that Kagome had stopped again. He turned to find her with an odd look on her face. Sad.

"Or that you're dead." she said, so quietly that it was almost a whisper. In fact, it might of been, but he had heard it anyway thanks to his keen ears.

Inuyasha felt his throat constrict and his mind unable to think. That Kagome worried so much about him made him both happy and upset. At the moment, though, upset won out. She was right, of course. There was a very good chance that he would die when the battled Naraku for the jewel shards. It would be naive to think that it wasn't a possibility. But at the same time, it hurt him that she didn't have faith in him to survive the battle, after she had had so many other times. Many times, it had been Kagome's trust that had kept him going when he felt down and defeated. It was her face that appeared to him to give him strength when he had none.

"Kagome." was all he could say, and if he was someone else, he might have winced in shame at the soft tone he used. He should be proclaiming in a proud voice with a confident smile that he would never die, assure her that he'd be fine and always there for her. But he couldn't. He didn't want to lie to her.

For lack of something more comforting or reassuring to do, he walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulders. She looked up at him, and he could read the worry in her eyes. He gave cockiness a try anyway.

"Hey, don't worry about me. I'm half-demon, I'll be fine. Now you, on the other hand, you better not get in my way. When we go up against Naraku, I want to know that you're going to be at Kaede's hut where I don't have to worry about you getting in my way."

Kagome attempted a smile at him, letting him know that his effort was appreciated.

"No way am I going to let you fight without me. Naraku is as much my enemy as yours. When we find him, I'm going to be right there by your side."

Inuyasha smiled at her, but inside he couldn't help but feel worry now, mixed in with his fading happiness and his upset. Of course Kagome would want to fight by his side. But he hadn't been lying. He really did want her far away from the battle, when it took place. If by some miracle he survived the fight, he wanted her alive, and safe. But he knew that when the time came, he wouldn't be able to stop her. And so he could just hope for the best when that day came. Hope, and pray.

They walked the rest of the way to the Higurashi's in silence.

-end chapter.

end chapter notations: if anyone happens to know what Inuyasha's outfit _is _called, could you please tell me? The minute I wrote it down, I began to wonder. And I knew that I used to know it, too, which irritates me more because that means that I forgot. In some fanfictions, I keep seeing the word hakama, but I'm not sure if that's it.

And did you ever notice that Inuyasha nad Ranma actually _are_ a bit alike? Not extremely- I didn't even see it until I was correcting and checking this chapter for mistakes.


	6. Chapter 6 coming to meet you

Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha crossover fanfiction (under Ranma 1/2)

"Enter the Prayer Beads"

summary: When Akane and Ranma end up in possession of a pair of prayer beads (exactly like the ones around Inuyasha's neck, in case you haven't caught on yet) and they end up around Ranma's neck, what hilarity and chaos will ensure then? Ranma1/2xInuyasha crossover. RanxAka, InuxKag pairings.

disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's works. She's too good at what she does. : )

before you read: I've separated the story into sections by using dashes with letters or numbers or words (to make understanding the story easier for my precious readers. personally, I hate it when I can't figure out exactly who is saying what or when I don't figure out that the character perspective has changed until halfway through). The numbers stand for a chapter change, the letters stand for perspective change (character POV change) (ex. A for Akane, R for Ranma, Ry for Ryoga, M for Mousse), and the words stand for scene or a drastic time change (ex. from one day to the next, from morning to afternoon. specific time or time jumps will be numbers too)

to my readers: Thank you for being so patient, waiting for me to update again. I've waited a really long time to post this chapter because of writers block, and I refused to update just one story when I have 6 out so far, so I had to work on not just this chapter, but the others, many of which I also had writer's block on. Okay enough excuses. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and sorry for the long wait.

**CHAPTER SIX: Coming to Meet You**

Akane was fuming as she stomped her way back home and up to her room, slammed the door shut once she was inside her own space. That jerk! Why did he always have to be like that? And after she had tried to help him figure out the trigger word too! Well, she sure showed him! He deserved to have his face slammed into the ground for what he said about her! He-

Akane's thoughts slowed as something occurred to her. She had... He had fallen to the ground when...

Her mind seemed to stop as the event replayed itself in her head. Everything seemed to pause in her mind as she replayed over and over her telling Ranma to "beg."

"I had just opened my mouth and... it was like I automatically knew what to say. I didn't think about it... and suddenly, I was saying it."

Akane covered her mouth with her hand, horrified with what she had done. She may have seriously hurt him!

Her voice replayed over and over in her head, from when she had first told him to "bet". Fear and guilt rushed through her, adrenaline giving her a speed that she normally didn't have as she raced out of her bedroom, down the stairs, and outside to find Ranma. Over and over in her mind, she recalled how he had fallen to the ground, been pushed further into the ground by the beads.

_Please, let him be okay!_

-S-

She was finishing up with a delivery, hopping across the rooftops to get back to great-grandmother when she happen spot Kitchen-wrecker running below.

Realizing was perfect opportunity to get girl tell Shampoo trigger word for husband, she leapt to ground, landing in front of stupid girl.

"Where girl go to in such hurry?" Shampoo said, as land on ground.

"Be good girl and tell Shampoo trigger word for husband so can go back China."

Stupid girl back up step and glare at Shampoo.

"No." Kitchen-wrecker said.

Shampoo growled. Defiant girl.

"You tell Shampoo and I no have to kill you." Shampoo reasoned, putting hands on hips. She smile, but inside, Shampoo mad.

_She knew Kitchen-wrecker knew trigger word! Trigger word would control Shampoo husband! Why didn't girl give Shampoo what rightfully belong Shampoo?_

"Give! No have patience for you." Shampoo say, holding hand out symbolically. She beckon Kitchen-wrecker like how call dog.

"Get lost, Shampoo. I don't have time for this now." Kitchen-wrecker say in angry voice, eyes looking for escape. Shampoo loose patience and decide would beat Kitchen-wrecker to tell. No more nice Shampoo.

Just as Shampoo about to beat up Kitchen-wrecker, a bucket of cold water fall on Shampoo.

Cat Shampoo hiss at being wet. Hate wet as cat.

Hissing at Akane, she ran away, knowing that she'd probably do more damage than good here since husband did not like cats. Shame, but she'd have to get him used to her Jusenkyo form some other time.

And she'd get Kitchen-wrecker some other time when she could talk.

Cat Shampoo ran to find hot water.

-I-

He sighed in exasperation. They had returned back through the well and were now in old hag Kaede's hut. Kagome had decided to change the subject to something less depressing and asked him all kinds of questions about the kid that he had been with, talking his ear off the whole way there when all he had wanted was some silence so he could think. He really wanted to reflect more on what he and Kagome had been talking about before, but the boy he had encountered was the more immediate concern.

The kid had had a necklace like his- the cursed prayer beads that the old hag had spelled him with when he had first met Kagome. But why did some kid in Kagome's time have them around his neck? It was strange, even without thinking about the fact that the beads had survived for so long without being destroyed or damaged, and that they were still spelled.

The guy hadn't been a demon, and hadn't seemed particularly dangerous either, although something about him did seem to be off. Perhaps it was the scent around him- almost as female as it was male. That was definitely confusing.

"Inuyasha, are you listening to me?"

Kagome's voice cut through his thoughts, bringing the half-demon's attention back to the present conversation.

"Huh?"

His companion sighed impatiently before repeating her question.

"What do you think we should do?"

"About what?"

"About the guy!"

"Oh. I dunno." He scratched his head with a claw, confused.

"We were gonna do something about him?"

Kagome sighed in exasperation.

"Yes!"

The monk decided to take pity on the half-demon, catching him up on their conversation and adding in his own two cents on the matter.

"Our assumption is that the beads that you had seen in Kagome's time are the same beads you currently wear around your neck, since subjugation beads are not something made lightly, or easily. Plus, Kagome had told us that you said that they looked old, right?"

Inuyasha nodded his head, and Miroku continued.

"If we can figure out why this other boy has the beads, then maybe we can trace it back in time and find out about what happened to Inuyasha. The fact that the kid has them means that Inuyasha is no longer wearing them."

"True." Sango added. "And because Inuyasha's a half-demon, he'll probably live a long time. I always figured that after they had outlived their usefulness, the beads would be properly disposed of and disappeared by Kagome's time."

"Or maybe Inuyasha will have to wear them his whole life, since he's so clueless all the time." Shippo added in.

"What did you say, you little runt?" Inuyasha exclaimed, lunging for the kitsune, who screamed and began running out of reach.

"Inuyasha, sit!"

Thud.

"..."

-a bit later-

"We're not going back!" Inuyasha yelled at Kagome for the fourth time that day.

"And I say we're going! Maybe he could help us!" Kagome replied, equally stubborn.

"Are you crazy? How are we supposed to even find him in your time?" the half-demon reasoned.

"Use your nose! You did it to find me!"

Inuyasha looked away at that, unable to meet her eyes.

"... That was different."

"Different how?"

Unable to think of how to reply to that, Inuyasha was grateful when Kaede interrupted their argument with a cough. When she got their attention, she gave her advice.

"It would be best if ye talked to the lad. He may know something about how the beads came to be in his possession. We may find out more about our current circumstances from him, and mayhaps, even what is in store for us in the future."

"Feh. Fine. Okay." Inuyasha said, rotating his shoulder to loosen it. It made sense, when the old hag put it that way. Maybe they really could learn about what was going to happen to them. His stomach tightened as he thought about all the possibilities and what they might learn from the boy. There was a good chance that it wouldn't be anything good. But maybe... maybe if they learned about it ahead of time, they would be able to figure out a way to prevent it. Or maybe it _would_ be good news. Or maybe the kid would know nothing at all. Either way, it was worth a shot. And if he didn't investigate it, he'd always wonder about it when the final battle with Naraku came.

"Fine. Then I guess that we'll just have to track him down and see what he knows."

-a bit later-

They climbed out of the well back in Kagome's time, ready to search for the mysterious boy who had the subjugation beads. Kagome led Inuyasha to the place where they had last seen the boy, marked by the imprint of his body that was still in the ground. It was proof that the beads were still working. And it looked like age hadn't diminished their power over the years either.

Inuyasha sniffed the ground, picking up the boy's unusual scent fairly quickly. What was interesting, though, was that he also picked up a girl's scent mingling with the kid's scent. That hadn't been there before.

He sniffed again. Hmm. He'd worry about that later. The girl smelled harmless. 100% human. And although that may not have meant innocent in his time, in Kagome's time, there seemed to be less violence among them.

"It's this way, Kagome." Inuyasha pointed, letting his nose lead the way as he began following the scent.

He was beginning to feel more anxious about meeting the boy. And about finding out more about his future.

-A-

She managed to get Ranma home with little trouble. At least, little trouble considering that it was Ranma. The fact that he had been right as rain when she had found him shouldn't have really been a surprise to her considering the blows he's taken before, but it still relieved her.

The problem, however, wasn't him being injured and dragging him home, but dragging him home while convincing him that she wasn't going to use the beads on him. However, Ranma's special brand of bad luck decided to pay a visit halfway there, and before she knew it, Ranma had tripped into a barrel of fish after barely avoiding a splash of cold water, got surrounded by cats, and had turned Neko. After that, having the Neko Ranma follow her home had been a cakewalk.

Well, she had managed to lead him back home without too much trouble the rest of the way, and since he was Neko, she no longer had to worry about calming him down so he wouldn't bolt on her. After all, the Neko Ranma loved her, no matter what the normal Ranma felt. The only problem now was, how long would it be before Ranma returned to normal? She liked Neko Ranma, but she really did need to talk to the human-minded Ranma. She needed to talk about the beads, what had happened, and what they were going to do about it. After all, they couldn't let the beads stay around Ranma's neck, could they?

Suddenly, Neko Ranma lifted his head from her lap were she had been petting him. He sniffed the air and his hackles raised. Hissing, he faced the porch, and when she turned her head in the same direction, she came face to face with two strangers- a male with fangs and silver hair, and a teenage girl in a sailor uniform.

-end chapter.


	7. Chapter 7 the neko emerges

Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha crossover fanfiction (under Ranma 1/2)

"Enter the Prayer Beads"

summary: When Akane and Ranma end up in possession of a pair of prayer beads (exactly like the ones around Inuyasha's neck, in case you haven't caught on yet) and they end up around Ranma's neck, what hilarity and chaos will ensure then? Ranma1/2xInuyasha crossover. RanxAka, InuxKag pairings.

disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's works. She's too good at what she does. : )

before you read: I've separated the story into sections by using dashes with letters or numbers or words (to make understanding the story easier for my precious readers. personally, I hate it when I can't figure out exactly who is saying what or when I don't figure out that the character perspective has changed until halfway through. also, doesn't let me put just the dashes alone so I need letters/numbers to separate them). The numbers stand for a chapter change, the letters stand for perspective change (character POV change. ex. A for Akane, R for Ranma, Ry for Ryoga, M for Mousse), and the words stand for scene or a drastic time change (ex. from one day to the next, from morning to afternoon. specific time or time jumps will be numbers too)

to my readers: Thank you for being so patient, waiting for me to update again. I'm glad that this chapter didn't take nearly as long as the last one did. That last chapter had just been bad (in terms of length). And now I am proud to present you with... chapter seven!

-7-

**CHAPTER SEVEN: The Neko Emerges**

The boy padded across the floor on all fours. His eyes no longer had a human gleam in them as he stared, focused, at Inuyasha.

He let out an odd hissing/growling sort of noise, and Inuyasha let out a growl of his own. The half demon didn't know why the human was acting so weird, but he refused to be stalked like some sort of prey. And the guy didn't exactly have a _friendly_ look on his face either. If the kid was threatening him, it'd be the last thing the guy ever did. Plus, the more the guy advanced, the closer he (Ranma) was to Kagome. And nothing dangerous would hurt her as long as he (Inuyasha) was near her.

"Stop it, Inuyasha. We didn't come here to fight."

Kagome grabbed his sleeve and tugged him back a step. He let her pull him closer to her and farther from the strange boy, but only because she wasn't trying to push him further away from protecting her.

"_Fine_. But if he attacks me, all bets are off. He'll have to _beg_ for his life from the other end of my claws." Out of the corner of his eye, Inuyasha saw the kid's female companion wince. But then she blinked in surprise. He decided to think about that later.

"Um... Is there any way to stop him?" Kagome asked, her question directed towards the girl that had winced. Inuyasha swiveled his ears in her direction, but kept his gaze firmly on the black-haired boy, who still glared at him. It was odd. He was human, Inuyasha was sure of it- he could smell it. But right now he was acting like a... cat.

"Um... I can try." the other girl replied to Kagome, and then Inuyasha heard her cluck her tongue. The cat-boy's head immediately swiveled around towards her direction at the sound.

"Here, Ranma. Come here. It's okay. No one's trying to hurt anyone. They're friends." she called. Inuyasha heard the doubt in her voice at the last sentence, but he didn't hold it against her. She didn't know them, and had no reason to trust them. He'd be the same way in her position.

'Ranma' gave him a last look before bounding over to the girl. He meowed up at her and began to rub against her legs and purr.

Just like a cat.

The girl didn't seem fazed by it at all though. In fact, she looked pleased that the boy was acting the way he was, and, after another second of watching to make sure that 'Ranma' didn't seem inclined to become feral and pounce, Inuyasha turned his attention to Kagome.

She looked stunned, to say the least. It was pretty comical. He felt his lips curve into a smile. She hadn't looked like that in awhile. And he had thought that after all they had seen, nothing could surprise her anymore.

-A-

She ushered the two strangers inside and sat them down in the main room. The girl seemed pretty normal, but the guy was a different story altogether. His presence took up the whole room, large and imposing. Like Ranma when he was ready to fight. It was kind of scary to see someone like that when he was just standing there, inside the house. Especially when he looked the way that he did.

His eyes were golden, and sharp. They seemed to map all of her movements, but not in a perverted way. It was more like he was a large animal, tracking its meal. Or a hunter watching its prey. Or something it deemed an enemy. It almost made her shiver. On second thought, the girl couldn't be normal to hang out with someone like this. And she was obviously comfortable around him.

"What can I do for you?" Akane asked as Neko Ranma made himself comfortable in her lap. He seemed content to ignore their company, although every once and a while, he glanced over at the guy with what appeared to be dog ears on his head. Her forced fiance's actions seemed to stun the girl, but there was nothing short of cold water that would snap Ranma out of his trance, and judging by the trouble she had had with dragging him back home before, Akane was more than reluctant to bring him back to sanity with guests present unless she had to.

The dog-eared guy was the first one to speak.

"I met him earlier." he said, nodding his head towards Ranma, the expression on his face at the boy's actions letting Akane know that although he wasn't sure why Ranma was acting the way he was now, he wasn't going to ask about it. "And I forgot to ask him something."

His companion blinked, finally tearing her gaze away from Neko Ranma to look at the golden-eyed youth as if surprised, before continuing her companion's conversation.

"The necklace that he's wearing." she began, glancing back at Ranma again briefly as if she couldn't pull her eyes away from the strange sight before continuing. "Where did he get it from?"

"Why?" Akane asked, instantly curious and a bit suspicious. The necklace was nothing but trouble, and potentially dangerous according to Cologne, but if the older woman was right, it wasn't a very common item and if the two people across from her knew about it, and about it being here, most likely they were planning to take it. And she wasn't sure that that was necessarily a good thing. There had already been many instances in Nerima where giving up a curse made things worse for them.

It was then that Akane noticed the jewelry around the golden-eyed youth that was definitely not for fashion purposes. It was exactly identical to the one Ranma wore, but it looked significantly less... aged.

As if acutely conscious of where she was looking, the male raised a hand to the beads and fingered them. It was then that Akane noticed that not only did he have fangs, pointed ears and golden eyes, but claws as well.

"Who... are you people?" she asked, unable to help herself. If they were trouble, she wasn't certain if she'd be able to hold her own with Ranma in Neko form on her lap. Then again, Ranma was is Neko form, so it may not be a problem at all.

The girl in the sailor uniform shared a look with her companion before replying.

"My name is Kagome Higurashi, and this is Inuyasha. We're-"

she was cut off by her companion's gruff voice

"A miko and a half-demon."

-I-

The girl was taking the news a lot better than he had expected her to. She blinked a few times, and looked down at the guy on her lap as if considering something.

"...If you'll excuse me for a minute..." she said, getting up from her seat on the floor and walking out into another room. Her cat-like companion followed her, meowing for her as he did, leaving Inuyasha and Kagome alone in the room.

There was a moment of silence before Kagome spoke.

"I'm surprised at you, Inuyasha. You were very nice back there."

"Hmph. I can be nice if I have to be." the half-demon grumbled, folding his arms inside the sleeves of his outer robe.

"What do you think that was about?" his companion continued, her curiosity evident on her face.

"No clue." he replied, looking in the direction the short-haired girl had gone. "I hope she doesn't scream, or run. If she tries to attack us"

he added, cracking his knuckles one-handedly threateningly

"she's dead."

"Inuyasha, be nice!" Kagome scolded him.

"She wouldn't do something like that!"

"I know we're not in my time anymore, Kagome" he began, looking at her

"But it's still dangerous here. When people meet others who are different, they don't normally welcome them with open arms, you know."

Pain appeared in her eyes as his companion was reminded of his past. It had happened too long and too often for it to bother Inuyasha anymore, but the fact that Kagome sympathized with him did bother him. He was used to pain, but he didn't like seeing Kagome in pain- physically or emotionally.

"Don't worry, Kagome." he said, finding himself trying to comfort her.

"It's nothing. I'm probably wrong, anyway. This is your time, remember? Not mine. People don't do that anymore here."

Kagome frowned, her attention now on the new topic, and, just as Inuyasha had hoped, erasing the pain in her eyes.

"There are still bad people in Japan. They're just not as... direct as most of the people in your time, mostly. We have police here to watch out for that."

" 'Police' ?"

Sounds came from the room that the short-haired girl had gone into- something that sounded like banging, interrupting their conversation.

"I'll explain it later." Kagome said, her voice lower as if just remembering where they were. As the banging continued, she stood with a worried and curious look in her eyes. Inuyasha followed her as she followed the sounds of the noise.

"Excuse me, but do you need help?" the miko asked, her voice carrying down the hallway.

"Where's the cold water...?" the short-haired girl's voice could be heard as they approached, followed by more banging.

The sounds of a tea kettle whistling shrieked through the air, followed by a meow from the girl's cat-like companion. A splash could be heard, followed by a feminine shriek.

"I'm hearing a lot of noise, and I wanted to make sure-" Kagome raised her voice to be heard over the sounds, which got louder as they approached.

"Akane, what'd you do that for?" an indignant female voice called out. Then

"Yeowch!"

Followed by a more masculine

"That's hot! Watch where you're pouring that!"

"...that you were alright." Kagome's voice tapered off at the sight they saw.

As he and Kagome rounded the corner into what appeared to be what Kagome called a 'kitchen', they were greeted by the sight of the short-haired girl setting down a tea kettle on the thing Kagome called a 'stove' and the boy who had before been acting very cat-like, now standing up straight, wet, and speaking normally.

"We have guests." the short-haired girl, presumably the one called 'Akane' said to the dark-haired male, indicating to him and Kagome with her head. The guy turned, taking in their appearance with a look, recognition slowly dawning in his eyes.

"It's you again." he said to the half-demon, absentmindedly wringing the water out of his braid, as if he was used to being wet in the kitchen. The boy's eyes glanced down to Inuyasha's prayer beads, bringing the half-demon's mind back to the reason that they were there.

"I couldn't let you stay Neko forever." the short-haired girl was saying to the boy, giving him a look as he scratched the back of his head, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I-"

His sudden pause alerted them a second before his feet began moving, slowly taking him out of the kitchen.

"Ah, heh, I just... remembered something I have to do, Akane. It's really important, so maybe I could speak to you some oth-"

The short-haired girl caught up to him, though, before he could escape, as he so obviously wanted to, grabbing the back of his hair to do so. The question was- why had he wanted to escape?

Inuyasha was beginning to have the feeling that what happened next was going to be very interesting.

-R-

He felt his panic rise another notch as Akane's grip on his pigtail tightened and she pulled him forceably backwards to her side once more. He had forgotten in the midst of seeing the guy with ears and fangs again that Akane knew the command word for his cursed necklace. And Akane was nothing if not vindictive- probably eager to get back at him for all the things he had done- or that she thought he had done- to her.

He felt the fanged guy's eyes on him as he squirmed under Akane's grasp, taking everything in with his piercing golden orbs that seemed to miss nothing. Although at the moment, he must've been just as confused as the other girl obviously looked.

"I'm sorry for not introducing myself properly earlier." Akane was saying to the two as he continued to try to think of a way to escape her hold on his hair without actually hurting her.

"My name's Akane Tendo, and this is" he felt her hesitate as she thought of how to describe their 'relationship' to each other. Finally, though, she seemed to settle on a word

"friend and house guest, Ranma Saotome." come later.

"Err, nice to meet you." he said automatically, while trying not to look like he was trying to escape for his life. Although the fact that the silver-haired non-human guy was in the Tendo house did make him curious, he was more eager to escape Akane's wrath at the moment than stay and chat. Talking could always come later. Right now, he was more worried for his life.  
Just as he had almost made it out the door, Ranma felt his collar grabbed none too gently.  
"Oh no you don't." Akane growled, her voice bringing a flash of what looked like a mixture of caution and amusement to their white-haired guests' eyes.  
"You're staying right here and telling me why these people were looking for you."  
"Actually" the black-haired girl volunteered tentatively,

"not him specifically. We were looking for the necklace."  
-a minute later-  
They sat themselves back down at the table, Akane still with a tight grip on Ranma's collar even after he seated himself so that he couldn't try to run away again.  
"Explain." she demanded to him, with a firm voice, as if he had all the answers.  
"What do ya expect me ta say?" he demanded, trying to wiggle free from her grasp, not no avail. "I only met 'im once!"  
"Um..." the black-haired girl intervened again.

"Perhaps I can help explain things."

Akane turned her attention towards the girl and, thankfully, away from him.

"Well," the uniformed girl began, after a pause, "you see, Inuyasha and I met a few years back. Not too soon after we had encountered each other, a miko named Kaede spelled the necklace around him that he's wearing now. We know for a fact that it should be one of a kind. But Inuyasha told me that he met... er..."

"Ranma." the martial artist supplied her with his name again.

"Right, Ranma." the girl smiled her thanks at him.

"He said that he had met Ranma close by, and that he had noticed that Ranma seemed to have the exact same set of beads that he did. We were curious, so we came to see for ourselves."

"I see..." Akane said, giving Ranma's necklace a look, before eying Inuyasha's necklace.

"They do look identical, except for the amount of wear. But how could Ranma have a necklace that only Inuyasha is supposed to have?"

"Er..." the girl said, looking a bit uncomfortable.

"We have a theory about that. You see, what we were wondering was not so much if someone made a replica of Inuyasha's necklace, but... er... if he was actually wearing the same one."

Ranma could tell that Akane was confused. He was too. Somewhere along the conversation, he had stopped trying to escape Akane's grip and had begun listening to their talk. It was too interesting to ignore.

"But how could they be the same?" Akane asked the same thing he had been wondering.

"I mean, Inuyasha still has his necklace on him."

"That's true." the girl said.

"In fact, it's spelled so that only I can take them off of him. But, um... between the time Ranma could have gotten the necklace and the time that Inuyasha got his is a long time, and it's not impossible that... something could have happened in between to... get the necklace off Inuyasha."

"But that doesn't explain how Inuyasha still has his necklace on him." Akane said, confused.

"Er..." the girl seemed hesitant to explain.

An exasperated sigh escaped Inuyasha's mouth then. He had been so quiet that Ranma had almost forgotten about him. Almost, but not quite.

"Just spit it out, Kagome. It's not that hard. If they don't understand it, it's their fault."

"Inuyasha." the girl admonished. "I don't want to confuse them."

The dog-eared boy sighed.

"Whatever."

The girl, Kagome turned her attention back to them.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to confuse you. What I meant to say was"

she took a breath then, as if fortifying herself

"that Inuyasha got his prayer beads during the feudal era. I travel back and forth from the past to the present with him to search for the shards of something called the Shikon no Tama. We were wondering how sometime between the feudal era and now, Ranma managed to obtain the necklace."

"...Oh." was all Akane said. Ranma saw the confusion on her face deepen, and knew that he probably wasn't looking much better.

-K-

Kagome knew that she had only confused them more. But what else was she supposed to say? There was no other explanation for how both guys could be wearing the same necklace at the same time, except for the truth- time travel. After all, if two people wore something that was supposed to be one-of-a-kind, it only made sense that they could if they were from different times.

"I'm sorry if this is all a bit confusing." she said, hoping to ease their bewilderment, at least a bit.

"But it's all true."

"Of course it is." she heard the guy with the braid mutter under his breath, not necessarily in a sarcastic way. In fact, it sounded more like he was talking to himself.

"Demons breaking seals and possessing bodies to do evil deeds, a ghost haunting a ball looking for a bride, Jusenkyo curses and Akane's mallet appearing outta nowhere an' her cooking from hell, why wouldn't time travel be possible?"

However, Inuyasha, apparently, took his muttered words as an insult. Kagome heard a growl from his direction and saw him begin to advance on the boy. She grabbed his sleeve before he could make his way around- or more like across- the table. The short-haired girl, Akane, seemed oblivious to this, even as her companion brought his head up to stare at Inuyasha with a mixture of confusion (no doubt at the growl) and another emotion that Kagome could only describe as a warrior who would not let his opponent attack him. A kind of, for lack of a better description, determined pride.

_What a strange combination._

"Um... Okay." Akane said, clearly struggling to accept the explanation completely, but seeming to ignore it in the face of asking another question- one that Kagome saw she seemed to be almost jumping out of her seat to ask.

"So... what exactly does this necklace do?"

At her question, the boy, Ranma, stopped staring at Inuyasha and gave her a look that if Kagome didn't know any better, she'd say it was concealed fear. Inuyasha shifted, as if he knew what was coming next.

"Well," Kagome said, wondering where to start.

"The prayer beads have a spell of subjugation on them, although that's not necessarily as fantastic as it sounds, I guess. The beads don't really do much."

"But doesn't subjugation mean 'submitting'?" Akane asked. Kagome could tell that both guys were getting incereasingly nervous by their talk, as Ranma tried to get up to leave and Akane had to grab his shirt again. Although Kagome didn't think that it could be the same reason why Inuyasha was nervous. Still, she wanted to find out for herself. It was just too much of a temptation to resist, and she sent a silent prayer to kami to forgive her for what she was just about to possibly do to the boy.

"Not exactly. The beads only do one thing." she replied to Akane's question, and knew that if Inuyasha didn't feel the need to watch over her in case these two were evil or attacked her (which she was almost 100% positive they weren't or wouldn't do) right now, he'd try to flee from this room before the next words (or word, really) were out of her mouth. She kept her eyes trained on Ranma as she said the next bit.

"What's that?" Akane asked curiously.

"This." Kagome replied, to which she heard Inuyasha start

"Wait a minute, Kagome, you're not planning to-"

"Sit."

Crash!

-end chapter.


	8. Chapter 8 the second subjugation beads

Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha crossover fanfiction (under Ranma 1/2)

"Enter the Prayer Beads"

summary: When Akane and Ranma end up in possession of a pair of prayer beads (exactly like the ones around Inuyasha's neck, in case you haven't caught on yet) and they end up around Ranma's neck, what hilarity and chaos will ensure then? Ranma1/2xInuyasha crossover. RanxAka, InuxKag pairings.

disclaimer: I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's works. She's too good at what she does. : )

before you read: I've separated the story into sections by using dashes with letters or numbers or words (to make understanding the story easier for my precious readers. personally, I hate it when I can't figure out exactly who is saying what or when I don't figure out that the character perspective has changed until halfway through). The numbers stand for a chapter change, the letters stand for perspective change (character POV change) (ex. A for Akane, R for Ranma, Ry for Ryoga, M for Mousse), and the words stand for scene or a drastic time change (ex. from one day to the next, from morning to afternoon. specific time or time jumps will be numbers too)

to my readers: Sorry it took so ridiculously long to update this story. But finals and projects are over, and except for summer work, I am totally free to write! Hopefully I'll update again before summer ends. (sweatdrops)

-8-

**CHAPTER EIGHT: The Second Subjugation Beads**

Akane stared in amazement, wonder, and shock as the half-demon's face hit the floor of the room and didn't get up. Well, to be honest, he tried, but the beads wouldn't let him. Ranma, meanwhile, was staring at Inuyasha with a mixture of horror and dawning comprehension of something on his face. Kagome knew that her own face showed confusion at seeing such a strange reaction to the beads, but she couldn't help it.

"That's strange." she found herself saying.

"What's strange...?" Akane asked, and, Kagome could see, struggling to tear her eyes away from the sight she had just seen before looking at Kagome again.

"Well, I was half expecting Ranma's beads to react in the same way that Inuyasha's just did. The prayer beads have been spelled to react to my voice speaking that one command, but Ranma's beads are unaffected. I'm not really sure why, though."

Akane turned to stare at Ranma's beads, then at the boy himself, who was back to looking nervous. A slight frown creased the pretty girl's face.

"Does magic like that deteriorate over time?" she asked.

Kagome shook her head.

"I have no idea. Those beads must be several hundred years old now. The fact that they even still exist, much less in the condition that they're in, surprised me."

"So the beads do make the wearer subjugate to you. In a way." Akane remarked, looking back at Inuyasha.

"Haha. Yeah, in a way." was Kagome's reply as her companion was finally able to get back to his feet. He grumbled slightly as he picked himself up, but surprised her by not complaining about how she was using the prayer beads to demonstrate for the two like she expected him to. Kagome guessed that he didn't want to seem weak in front of Ranma, who he seemed to be looking at as sort of an opponent or rival.

"So the necklace only works like that if you say the word?" Akane asked.

"Yup."

She saw the cogs turn in the girls' brain, as she seemed to be struggling with some sort of part of that concept.

"But then..." she heard the girl begin.

"Is it possible to change who the commander is?"

She asked this while looking at Ranma, who instinctively grabbed the necklace around his neck as if afraid of something.

"I dunno. If my command didn't work, it may mean that the beads are no longer effective." was Kagome's reply, but she watched in fascination as Ranma began to try to take the necklace off of him, just as Akane uttered

"Sit."

The boy flinched, as if expecting the same thing that happened to Inuyasha to happen to him, but the necklace didn't pull him down to the ground. Hurriedly, he tried to take the necklace off again, only to seem to meet some sort of resistance halfway. He grunted, and muttered

"Not again."

before finally letting the necklace fall back in place with a long sigh, casting a sideways, slightly scared yet scowling look at Akane.

Kagome and Inuyasha exchanged looks with each other. It seemed like there was more going on to this story then they first thought. Both Akane and Ranma seemed to be acting as if the beads had already done something, although that had to be impossible without Kagome around... right?

-I-

He watched Kagome glance back at the two others as he recalled his first meeting with Ranma. The boy had mentioned something about a leash- a term that Inuyasha had come familiar with after spending so much time with Kagome and had decided was an adequate description of the beads around his neck. However, now that he thought about it, he realized that he doubted the boy would describe the prayer beads like that if the only thing they did was not come off. They must've worked at least once- he had seen evidence of it himself by the crater the boy had made in the ground that day. But Kagome couldn't have done that to him, since she hadn't even known about him then. Then... who... ?

He heard Kagome say

"Um, excuse me. Let me try something."

but was only half paying attention. He was more interested in what she was doing. Kagome reached across the table and took hold of Ranma's prayer beads, and, Inuyasha realized, intended to remove them. But, just like the boy had, after taking them off halfway, she seemed to meet a resistance, and couldn't.

"That's strange." Kagome commented, trying again before giving up and settling back down into her seat with a sigh of her own.

"Kaede told me that I can take Inuyasha's prayer beads off because they're spelled to obey my voice. But I can't take off Ranma's beads at all."

-R-

Feeling a sense of foreboding, he slowly turned his head in Akane's direction, only to see what he feared- she seemed to be thinking about what had happened earlier in the day. All this talk made him remember it awhile ago, but he had hoped that Akane wouldn't recall that particular moment- that she had gotten his necklace to do exactly what Kagome had gotten Inuyasha's to do earlier. And he didn't know what she had said to make it do that, but it hadn't been 'sit'.

He saw her mouth open, and flinched, ready for it.

"Bet."

After a second that felt like forever, Ranma opened his eyes, only to realize that nothing had happened. Akane, however, was frowning at him.

"Bet."

Ranma felt himself begin to grin. So she didn't know the trigger word after all. Last time had been a mistake. A strange (but hey, he had seen stranger) mistake. Relief coursed through him. Akane didn't know the trigger word after all!

"That's strange. I knew it worked last time." he heard her mutter, and, too happy to remember that they had guests, Ranma began teasing her.

"What's the matter, Akane? Thought you finally found a way to beat me?"

"Shut up." she growled at him, which only served to increase his joy.

"If you want, I could always throw a match for ya- _not_." he emphasized the ending by sticking his tongue out at her.

"I wouldn't do that if you decided to beg-"

Ranma felt a sudden jerk around his neck as the ground seemed to race up towards his face.

"me! I can beat you on my own!"

Ranma's reply was lost in a mumble as he tried to speak despite the fact that his face was attached to the floor.

"Umcmmte."

-Kagome-

She stared in somewhat of a shock at the events that had just unfolded in front of her.

No way. The beads were working for someone else?

She looked at the two teens, neither of who seemed to find anything unusual about the situation that they were in. Surprised by this, but curious, Kagome couldn't help but intercede and comment on something that she had found odd about Ranma and Akane's exchange.

"Akane, I don't mean to, ah, interrupt, but have you ever thought that the trigger word might be 'beg' instead of 'bet'?"

Akane looked at her and seemed to contemplate this for a bit before turning back to Ranma.

"Beg."

Ranma grunted as the beads pulled him further into the ground.

"Beg. Beg beg beg beg beg!"

The girl seemed to be releasing a lot of pent up anger on the boy, and Kagome began to regret that she had told the girl the key word to the beads, although she wasn't really one to point fingers since she had done the same thing to Inuyasha before. So chose to sit back, watch, and wait for the girl to tire herself out.

-5 minutes later-

After Akane finished, she wipe her brow, a happy and satisfied smile on her face, as if she had worked off a lot of stress.

"Ah, I feel refreshed."

Ranma mumbled something into the floor, but it was too garbled to make out.

Kagome heard a door open and footsteps making their way to the room. A man with a mustache and two older girls- one with a smirk and short dark hair, and the other with longer and softer-looking hair in a loose side ponytail with a sweeter smile.

"Oh my," the girl with the ponytail said, putting her hand to her cheek. "We'll have to repair the floor again."

"Yeah." the short-haired girl commented. "Although this looks like a different kind of damage than usual. What'd you do to him this time, Akane?"

Akane blushed, clearly embarrassed.

"I-I did nothing! It was his fault!"

"Mmhmm." the short-haired girl replied sarcastically.

"Shut up, Nabiki."

"Oh, we have guests." the softer-spoken girl said, turning her attention to Kagome and Inuaysha. Without even giving a second glance at Inuyasha's ears or other obvious inhuman qualities, she asked him and Kagome

"Shall I get some tea?"

"Um, no thank you." Kagome found herself saying, waving her hand, taken back by the girls' sudden hospitality in the face everything else, which was becoming more and more of a strange type of hovering chaos. Even this nice person was unusual, for not finding any of it unusual.

"We're fine."

"So what happened here?" the short-haired girl asked.

"It's all Akane's fault." Ranma replied, having finally been able to pick himself up off the floor.

"Nothing would have happened if Akane wasn't so crazy."

"Beg!"

Crash!

"Ooh. Nice one, Akane." the girl that she had called Nabiki replied, whistling as she looked at Ranma's unintended faceplant on the ground.

"How'd you manage that one?"

"Hmph. He deserved it." was Akane's reply, turning her head so that it was facing away from Ranma.

The man with the mustache all of a sudden started crying, tears freely flowing down his cheeks.

"Oh, my baby girl can finally control the wayward Ranma. Our schools will be joined at last!"

He pulled two fans out from somewhere, and opened them, revealing that they each bore the symbol of Japan's flag on them.

"Let us celebrate it by preparing for the wedding immediately!"

"_Dad_!" Akane said, blushing a beet red as if in embarrassment.

"I'm not sure how legal that'd be." Nabiki commented.

"Wouldn't it be void because we'd basically be threatening him?"

But she didn't sound too upset or worried about the concept, judging by her smirk.

"Oh, that's nice." the other girl said, while putting on an apron.

"If you'll excuse me, I'll go make dinner. Won't you two join us?" she asked, directing the last part of her question to Kagome and Inuyasha.

Taken back by the normalcy of the statement among everything else that she didn't understand, Kagome hesitated.

"Ah... yes please. Thank you." she finally said, feeling that there were a lot of things that Akane had to explain to her.

When she turned back, she saw Akane pushing the man from the room (who was still crying a river of tears), with the short-haired girl following behind.

"All right, all right. We'll leave you alone." Nabiki was saying to her.

"For now." was her last comment as she left the room, accompanied with a smirk.

Akane heaved a sigh as the two left, plopping herself back down at the table near Kagome and the others.

"I'm sorry about that. My family can be a bit... nosy."

"No, it's okay." Kagome replied, waving her hand, before she remembered a particular part of the conversation that had confused her.

"Say, Akane?"

"Hmm?"

"What did that guy mean about you marrying Ranma?"

Akane's (and Ranma's, who had gotten off the floor after the last 'beg' command) face turned bright red.

"Oh... _that_..."

Akane looked at the floor, and Ranma looked off to the side.

"It was a stupid idea that our father's came up with before we were born. They want us to marry so that they can join their martial art's schools."

She let out another sigh and closed her eyes.

"Not that I'd ever want to marry a stupid pervert like him." she added, muttering under her breath.

"Well ex-_cuse_ me." Ranma replied, obviously having heard her, his arms crossing over his chest.

"I didn't ask for this either. Who'd want to be married to an uncute tomboy like you?"

"_What_ did you say, pervert?" Akane opened her eyes and raised both her voice and her fist.

"Uncute!" Ranma replied, sticking his tongue out at her with his arms still crossed.

"Why you-"

Akane stood up suddenly, and before either Inuaysha or Kagome could blink, she pulled a bamboo sword out from somewhere and swung at the pigtailed boy.

But he was faster, as if anticipating the attack. Dodging to the side, he continued to tease her, as if unconcerned with the threat she posed to him.

"Macho chick! Swims like a brick!"

He dodged a swing from the sword and leapt to the ceiling, pulling his mouth out on both sides (with his tongue sticking out) as he stayed up there out of reach.

"Thighs are too thick!"

"Ooooh!" Akane growled.

"I'm gonna kill you!"

The prayer bead around Ranma's neck caught her eyes as they swung, and Kagome realized what she was going to do a second before Akane also remembered that he had them on.

"Can't even ki-"

"Beg!"

Crash!

Ranma's body plunged to the floor, and he barely had time to react before

"Beg beg beg beg beg!"

Each command put his a bit further into the ground, but Akane apparently didn't feel like it was enough.

"Beg beg beg beg beg beg beg beg beg _beg_!"

The last command seemed to echo off the walls, and Ranma, having been basically flattened, was wise enough to not speak. Or maybe he had passed out from all the abuse.

Finally, Akane seemed to calm down.

Kagome and Inuaysha just sit there, unsure what to do and a bit afraid to move, with sweatdrops on the backs of their heads.

-end chapter.


	9. Chapter 9 a meeting of minds and origins

Ranma 1/2 and Inu-Yasha crossover fanfiction (under Ranma 1/2)

"Enter the Prayer Beads"

_Summary:_ When Akane and Ranma end up in possession of a pair of prayer beads and they end up around Ranma's neck, what hilarity and chaos will ensue then? Ranma1/2xInuyasha crossover. RanxAka, InuxKag pairings.

_Disclaimer:_ I do not own any of Rumiko Takahashi's works. She's too good at what she does. : )

_Before You Read_: I've separated the story into sections by using dashes with letters or numbers, partially so you know who's talking and partially because the site won't let me do dashes alone. The letters stand for perspective change (character POV change) (ex. A for Akane, R for Ranma, Ry for Ryoga, M for Mousse), and the words stand for scene or a drastic time change (ex. from one day to the next, from morning to afternoon. specific time or time jumps will be numbers too)

_To My Readers_: Thank you very much for being patient. I've been very busy, and I forgot about updating.

-9-

**CHAPTER NINE: A Meeting of Minds and Origins**

Akane turned to the two guests, a bright smile on her face that showed that the beads had been good stress relief.

"Sorry about that. Ranma can sometimes be a bit rude."

Kagome, wisely, kept her mouth shut. This girl might be even scarier than her when she was angry. And judging by the way Inuyasha was looking, he seemed to agree.

Instead of commenting on what had just happened, she felt that it'd be better to change topics.

"So... Akane."

"Hm?"

"How did you end up with the prayer beads, anyway?"

"Hmm." the girl put a finger to her lips, thinking.

"If I remember correctly, a package arrived at the house about a day or so ago. It looked pretty ordinary, but it had no return address. I was curious, so I opened it."

She shrugged.

"Inside was the necklace. It didn't seem dangerous or anything like that. Ranma wore it, and we just kept forgetting about them."

Kagome tried to wrap her head around the story. Well, no, that wasn't true. It was too easy to wrap her head around that story. In fact, it was almost... ordinary. No demons or strangers gave them the necklace, no curse or battle like it would have been if it had been her and Inuyasha (and in fact, that was how it _had_ happened with them). And no backlash wave of people had come after them afterwards, wanting to take possession of it. The only part of the story that she was even really curious about, that had seemed slightly unusual, was -

"So wait. Why did Ranma decide to wear the necklace if you didn't know who it was from or who it was for?"

"Ah... that." Akane said, looking a bit embarrassed. She scratched the back of her head.

"Well, when I was opening the package, Ranma came in the room and startled me, and... they just kinda... fell on him."

"They just... _fell_ on him?" Kagome repeated, unable to keep the disbelief out of her voice. Akane, however, aside from looking slightly embarrassed, just shrugged.

"Weirder thing have happened around here. In fact, that was pretty ordinary, considering. It'd be just our luck if they had broken and released some demon."

She seemed to remember Inuyasha was there, and blushed.

"Ah, sorry. No offense."

Inuyasha nodded his head to let her know he wasn't offended, and she smiled in relief. He seemed a bit taken back by it, which Kagome could understand. Just a minute ago, she had seemed so... volatile, but now she was acting like any other normal girl. A very pretty girl. Kagome spared a glance at Ranma, who was still face-first on the ground. Yep, these two were definitely interesting.

But aside from that, it seemed like the two were fairly normal. Although, she got the impression from Akane that there was more to their lives than she knew about, although honestly, aside from her slightly irregular father, it seemed more like the fact that the necklace had landed around Ranma's neck was just bad luck. Mostly, they seemed to be a pretty normal group of people living pretty normal lives. Even with the demon comment, which could be explained away as a result of her meeting Inuyasha.

"So, a question for a question?" Akane asked

"Sure. Shoot."

"How did you know about the necklace in the first place?"

She hesitated, having reached the topic that she had wanted to avoid, because of its connection to her life right now. And that, no matter how much Akane wanted to think _her_ life was unusual, was definitely more than ordinary.

"Oh... that."

Kagome tried to think about how best to explain it, and she glanced at Inuyasha for help. After all, he was the one who had found out about it. She just had second-hand knowledge.

The half-demon sighed.

"I met him" he inclined his head towards the pig-tailed boy, who hadn't moved from his spot on the floor yet

"a while ago while I was waiting for Kagome. The necklace is very distinctive. Especially to me, since I wear the same one."

"Because of the... circumstances that happened in the past, Inuyasha's necklace is one of a kind." Kagome explained. She remembered Kaede telling her a bit about the origin of the beads, and didn't really want to go into the details of it here.

"When Inuyasha mentioned that he had seen what appeared to be the exact same prayer beads on someone in my time, I knew that we had to investigate it."

"I'm sorry - wait." Akane held up a hand.

"In 'your time'?"

"Ah."

Kagome put a hand to her mouth, realizing that she had slipped up and given away more information that she had meant to. She had never told anyone on this side of the well other than her immediate family about her trips between eras, but considering the fact that the necklace was in fact one of a kind, she guess she should have expected to have to mention it sometime.

"Well, actually, you see, you may not believe this, but, um..."

She glanced at Inuyasha, who didn't give any indication of stopping or helping her.

"Well... the time right now is the present, right?"

"Yeah..." Akane nodded her head, but she looked confused by Kagome's train of thought.

"And... you know about the feudal era, right?"

"Uh huh. I learned about it in school." Akane began to look even more confused.

"Well... Inuyasha's not from our time." Kagome blurted out, unable to figure out a better way to say it.

"He's from Feudal Japan."

"Wh..._ what_...?"

Taken back by Kagome's blunt explanation, Akane took a visible minute to collect herself and her thoughts, a hand to her lips. Finally, she looked at Inuyasha.

"So... You were serious when you said that earlier? Does that mean that you _can_ travel through time? "

"Not really." was Inuyasha's gruff reply, and Kagome knew that he was embarrassed by the attention by the way that he looked away before answering the girl.

"There's a well at Kagome's place that also exists in my time. Both Kagome and I can use it to go back and forth from now into... the past."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

Her apology surprised him enough that he brought his eyes to look at her.

"For what?"

Akane looked genuinely sad as she spoke.

"I made you bring up a sore topic. It must be unsettling to be here, knowing that it's the future and not knowing what has happened between then and now."

Her words stunned Kagome, who couldn't help glancing at her dog-eared companion to see his reaction. Inuyasha's eyes were wide with shock, and an emotion that Kagome barely recognized on him - sadness. Now that she considered it, seeing things from his perspective must be just as unnerving for him as going back into the past was for her.

For all of her time with Inuyasha, she had never thought of it quite like that. And she had never thought to talk to him about it either, probably because she was the one who traveled the most through the well, and to her, it was his time that was foreign and strange. Still, the fact that she had never said anything like that made her feel... inadequate as his friend. And as... someone who... cared for him deeply, it made her feel worse.

Unsure of what else to do, she put a hand on his arm, trying to tell him without words that she felt his pain. He looked over at her, and their eyes connected. And in his golden orbs, she saw acceptance. He had already accepted the reality of it all long ago. And he didn't blame her for not vocalizing it.

"Now who is ready for dinner?"

The older sister's voice startled them out of their moment and Kagome looked up to the expectant face of Kasumi Tendo.

"Um..."

"You're staying, right? I hope you're hungry."

Kagome shared a glance with Inuyasha, who shrugged. To be honest, they had forgotten about that. It could definitely be explained away by the fact that today was so strange, compared to her normal day hunting down jewel shards.

"Ah, yes. Right. Thank you."

-Dinner-

The dinner itself seemed pretty ordinary, if you discounted the fact that there was a panda eating at the table with them. Inuyasha kept eyeing the creature – an action that she understood very well. Even she had only seen one in zoo. Kagome couldn't imagine that her companion had ever laid eyes on one. She would have called it a pet, except that she'd never heard of a panda who ate rice with chopsticks. And stranger still, the panda kept trying to steal Ranma's food, a feat that it couldn't accomplish because Ranma, who seemed used to the behavior, kept moving his bowl and blocking the panda's chopsticks with his own. The rest of the family didn't even blink as this exchange went on, which led her to believe that it was normal.

But speaking of normal, Kagome had a hard time believing that Akane's family, as a whole, was anything more than just that - normal. Sure, they had a rather odd pet, continued with a dying tradition of arranged marriages before birth, accepted cursed beads easily, and then there was that weird cat-like behavior that Ranma exhibited earlier, but...

Huh. When she thought of it that way, it did sound like their lives were a bit unusual.

Of course, it was nothing like the weird, sometimes downright strange life that she led. After all, what could compete with demons battles and time travel in your own backyard?

It wouldn't be until a day later that Kagome wished that she could take every word of that very thought back.

_It all began when she and Inuyasha ended up staying the night…_

-After dinner-

"Oh my, look at how dark it's getting." The older Tendo sister commented as she looked outside.

Kagome and Inuyasha had been talking with Akane and Ranma about the feudal era and hadn't realized the time that had passed. Kagome stood up, her eyes also now looking at the setting sun.

"Oh. Inuyasha, we'd better head back."

"Oh, my. It's much too late to walk back now." The older Tendo sister said, her hand to her cheek. "We have more than enough room to share. Why don't you spend the night? Kagome can sleep with Akane in her room, and Inuyasha can share the Saotome's room, if that's alright with you?"

"That's okay with me, but…" Kagome trailed off, looking at her dog-eared companion. She was fine with that arrangement, but wasn't sure if he was. The half demon wasn't really used to being indoors, and she wasn't too sure how Inuyasha would handle sleeping in a room with guys that he barely knew.

However, her companion wasn't looking at any of them, but outside at the backyard. He nodded his head once in the direction of a tree.

"Is that your property out back?" he asked. Kagome was both surprised and pleased that he was asking politely, although at first she wasn't sure why he was asking at all. But when she saw the tree, she also understood why.

"Yes," Akane answered, although she was confused.

"Everything to the wall is ours."

Inuyasha nodded again.

"I'm more used to staying outside, so if it's okay with you, I'll sleep in the tree."

"Okay." Kasumi answered with a smile.

"Would you like a blanket or a pillow to take with you?"

"Ah, no." the half-demon answered, slightly bashful. He wasn't used to being catered to, and it showed.

"I'm fine." Was his gruff reply.

"Okay." Kasumi accepted his response with another smile that, Kagome was getting the feeling, would have been just as bright as if he had said he was going to dance around naked. She got the sense that Kasumi was a lot like her mother - accepting of almost anything. Which reminded her…

"Is it okay if I make a quick phone call?" Kagome asked.

"I should let my mom know that I'll be staying over tonight so she doesn't get worried."

"Not at all." The oldest Tendo sister said.

"Here. Let me show you the phone."

-Early morning-

The sun was just about rising in the sky when Inuyasha woke to the sounds of flesh connecting with flesh. He was alert immediately, but as he turned his head towards the sound, he relaxed a bit. It was Ranma against a fat, old, bald man with glasses, who although Inuyasha didn't know him, he knew he wasn't a threat because there was no tension in either of the fighters' movements or faces. The fight seemed casual, although different than he was used to seeing.

The dog-demon watching them out of curiosity. He had never seen humans move so fluidly and with such power before, even though he'd been traveling with Sango and Miroku. Ranma made it look almost like he was as comfortable being in the air as on the ground, moving easily, more like some of the demons he had seen than a human, although the boy didn't smell like anything else but. Powerful moves like Sango, but he only used his hands and feet, no weapons, no claws, and no teeth.

Fascinating.

He heard another sound, and turned to see Kagome stumbling, bleary-eyed, outside in her pajamas, squinting in confusion.

-Kagome-

She turned to find Akane coming back from what looked like a jog, wide-awake and dressed in shorts, sneakers and a tank top, for the most part ignoring the whole scene that seemed to be playing itself out right in front of her.

"Does this happen often?" she couldn't help but ask the short-haired girl. Ranma and the other guy were jumping at heights she had only seen Sango accomplish, moving at speeds close to what she'd seen some demons move, and weirdest of all - without any killing intent. When you fought as often as she and her companions did, you got better at spotting such things like that.

"Yup. It's a daily schedule for them. Almost like clockwork. When I'm lucky, they're mostly done by the time I get back." Akane responded.

As if on cue, the man, who was presumably Ranma's dad, the missing Mr. Saotome that they had heard about last night but hadn't seen, grabbed the necklace around his son's neck, using it to his advantage by pulling on it and tossing the boy into the pond.

Ranma rebounded from the fall immediately, his head popping out of the water as he exclaimed in a strangely higher pitched voice.

"Hey! Keep yer hands off tha jewelry!"

Except that it wasn't Ranma. The person whose head and torso was sticking out of the small pond (which definitely wasn't big enough to hold two people) was a redhead, for one. And he obviously wasn't a... he.

Suddenly, a small, old man jumped out from somewhere, his arms outspread and a happy look on his face as he headed for Ranma.

"Ranma, my boy! You look as lovely as ever!" the old man exclaimed happily, burying his head in the now girls' busty chest.

"Gyaa!" the redhead screamed, before an outraged cry of

"Beat it, sicko!"

was heard throughout the yard as the offender was promptly booted into the sky.

"Oh, I forgot to mention some of the weirdoes around here." The short-haired girl added, seeming unfazed by the exchange a second ago, including how far the guy, now girl, who was her apparently reluctant fiancé (fiancée?) had kicked an old man with no regard whatsoever to his most likely failing health.

As if seeing the worry on her face, Akane lifted a hand, waving it in a dismissing fashion and giving Kagome a wry smile.

"Oh, don't worry about Happosai. He'll be back soon enough. Besides, he deserves it."

Kagome sweatdropped and shared a look with Inuyasha, who was still in the tree but who had obviously heard the exchange and was no doubt thinking the same thing.

"Really now?"

The short-haired girl's mouth turned down in a scowl.

"Yeah. He rebounds pretty quickly. Actually, watch out for that guy all together. He's a real pervert."

She waved in the air again as if to clear the air of her memories. Then Akane put her finger to her mouth, thinking.

"There are probably a few other things that I should warn you about when you're around here."

As if on cue again, another voice could be heard as a young man, around their age, barged into the yard, also out of seemingly nowhere, dressed in a kendo uniform, his arms also outspread as he headed towards Ranma just like the last guy had, this time exclaiming

"My pigtailed goddess!"

to which Ranma's response was to throw a bucket at his head, knocking the stranger out and making the bucket bounce back towards Ranma.

"I ain't yer anything, sicko!"

"Ranma! You haven't won against me yet!" his father declared, attacking again.

"Argh!"

The pig-tailed boy, now girl, turned to face the man. The bucket finished the ricochet back into his - er - her, hands from her earlier toss at the Kuno boys' face and she grabbed it without even looking at it, then quick as a blink scooped up water from the pond and tossed it at the bald man. And suddenly, there was a panda where the bald man had been.

Kagome knew that by this point her mouth had to be wide open. Too many strange things had just gone on in too short a time to comprehend. But just as she turned to Akane to ask her about it all, the boy who had been hit in the face with Ranma's bucket sat up, saw Akane and, producing flowers from somewhere, began to run over to her.

"My fierce tigress! Quick, allow me steal you away from the evil Saotome! Let us walk down the road of love together!"

"Excuse me." Akane said, before turning to face her advancing admirer with her fist.

"Beat it, Kuno!" she shouted, and with a single punch, she sent him flying off in the same direction Ranma had sent the old man.

As Kagome and Inuyasha gaped at her (in fact, Inuyasha slid out of the tree in shock, landing on his head, arms and legs still crossed), she dusted her hands off, looking none the worse for wear - certainly not like she had exerted any kind of real effort, and turned back to Kagome with a smile.

"Sorry. He can just be so annoying. That was Kuno-sempai. You might want to watch out for him too. He's another pervert."

"Yeah. That guy's a real piece of work." female Ranma said as she came to stand with them, wringing out the bottom of her shirt as she walked.

"Shit. This sucks. I hate getting wet."

"I'd think you'd be used to it by now." was Akane's comment as she looked at the redhead, as if her fiancé changing genders was normal.

Inuyasha began to walk over too, but he froze as Ranma pulled her shirt over her head to wring the whole thing out, her torso now bare and exposing her substantial chest.

Kagome was, to say the least, shocked.

"Ranma!" Akane scolded.

"We have guests!"

"What?"

The redhead then looked down at herself, and then at Inuyasha, who was very intently looking at the sky. The half-demon's face was beet red.

"Ah… sorry."

Ranma's face turned a bit pink and quickly slipped the shirt, still wet, on over her head.

"I forgot." The redhead mumbled, clearly embarrassed.

"Hold on. Let me go in and change."

And with that, the pig-tailed girl departed into the house.

Kagome and Inuyasha looked at each other, not sure what to say. All Kagome knew was that Akane and Ranma's life definitely no longer seemed quite so normal.

-A few minutes later-

Ranma returned back in time for breakfast, his face still slightly pink from residual embarrassment. As he sat down, Kasumi added rice to his bowl and handed it to him, which Ranma took and ate, absentmindedly blocking all attempts the panda made to steal his food.

"So..." Kagome began, although not sure where to begin.

"You're a girl?"

Ranma almost spit out his rice at her words. As it was, he choked a bit on it and needed to be hit on the back a couple of times in order to get it down. He took a swallow of tea that probably scalded his throat before he set the cup down and cleared his throat, his blush back up to full force.

"Ah, no. I'm not."

"But-"

"I'm cursed." the boy blurted, interrupting the miko, as if he couldn't bear to hear any more.

"Thanks to _this _stupid Pops of mine" he jabbed a thumb in the direction of the panda

"both of us fell into a cursed spring in China that turns us into somethin' else when splashed with cold water."

A determined look crossed his face and his jaw tightened.

"I'm all guy, trust me. No way am I some girl."

He looked over at Kagome again, with a slightly embarrassed look.

"No offense."

"None taken."

She glanced around the table, to the other household members, none of whom had bothered to stop eating at this news, as if it was a fact they were all well aware of and weren't bothered by it in the least.

"Are you two the only ones who... change?"

Ranma glanced around at the table too, and scratched his cheek with a finger when no one else answered.

"Er, no. There are others. Shampoo, Mousse, Pantyhose Taro, and Ry-"

A glance at Akane had him cutting off what he was about to say next, and the pigtailed boy finished with cough and a softly muttered

"Ah, yeah. An' some others."

"Does it bother you?"

"Nah. I barely even notice it anymore. 'cept, ya know, when that Kuno idiot's around, maybe. An' Happosai."

"The... old man?" Kagome ventured, still unsure of how Ranma had treated an elder. She could never fathom anyone doing such anything like that to Kaede, even Inuyasha in his worst mood.

"Yeah. 'specially him. It's better to stay away from that pervert."

Ranma looked at the two of them, and his eyes connected with Inuyasha as if there was a hidden message going on between them.

"Like stayin' real far away. He's a major pervert, an' goes for any girl he can get."

The half demon nodded his head, but said nothing, although their strange exchange made Kagome curious. It wasn't like Inuyasha had to worry about such a pervert, if the old man only went after girls.

As breakfast ended, Kasumi collected the dishware and brought it into the kitchen and everyone else scattered off into other places in the house. Kagome, Inuyasha, Ranma, and Akane, however, went out to the backyard to talk some more.

Kagome stretched.

"Ah, there's something to be said about not having to worry about cleaning dishes in a river when you're on the road."

"Do you do that often?" Akane inquired, grabbing a hose and beginning to water the nearby plants.

"Yeah. I spend most of my time away now, in Inuyasha's world, searching for jewel shards."

"Jewel shards?"

"Uh huh. It's kind of like a treasure hunt, but with the fate of the world at stake." the miko said, her hands fiddling with a chain around her neck.

"The fate of the _world_?"

"At least, that's how it seems." Kagome whispered.

"It's so hard to figure out how the past in connected to the present with things like this. There's no mention of such a thing in my textbooks, but then again, why would there be? Demons were not something someone would write about in history. And the people who read it today wouldn't believe it. Well-" she conceded, flashing a smile towards Akane

"most of them, anyway. I have no idea what I'm fighting for, in terms of the future. To me, in Inuyasha's time, I just want my friends alive and happy, and I want to protect the innocent from the evil Inuyasha and I are tracking down and fighting against."

At the look on AKane's face, Kagome forced herself to change the direction of conversation to the girl.

"What about you? You guys seem to have no problem believing in demons or curses. What do you do on a normal basis?"

"Well, we certainly don't fight against evil." the girl smiled.

"At least, not like you are. We're mostly just normal teenagers. My parents, well, my dad, raised me to be a martial artist like him. Ranma was taken from home when he was very young for the same purpose by his father."

The short-haired girl looked over to where Ranma and Inuyasha were talking near the tree. The two were such a mismatched pair in terms of looks, but both of them had a casual stance that did nothing to completely hide the more-than-normal strength she knew they both possessed.

"I do fight, but not for the world or anything noble like that. Just with Ranma, and sometimes... with myself, I guess."

The last, said in a lower voice, almost a whisper, brought Kagome's eyes to her. The girl was staring at Ranma with a look that was part sadness, and part...

Unwilling to intrude on her new friend's private moment, the miko looked away, only to stare at the ground and remember how she herself fought with her feelings for her traveling companion on a daily basis.

As if she couldn't help it, Kagome's eyes came up and found Inuyasha, and she watched him talk to Ranma, his golden eyes and dog-like ears focused on the pigtailed boy, not on her and Akane's conversation, for which she was glad.

"I am too." she said softly to the girl near her, and she felt rather than saw Akane's gaze go to her. Kagome continued.

"I know that I probably won't win that fight, but I just can't give up. Not yet."

"Me neither."

The two girls connected eyes and smiled at each other, in perfect understanding.

-End chapter.

_End Chapter Notations_: One reader pointed out to me that Akane seemed like a bully for making Ranma "sit" too many times. I'm not saying whether I agree or disagree, but I am curious to have other readers input on this. Please feel free to let me know your opinion on this


End file.
